Seven tourists injured after car falls into ditch in rhino attack

As many as seven tourists were injured in India’s Jaldapara National Park after the driver steered the tourist vehicle into a ditch, to avoid a rhino attack.

Following the attack, the driver of the jeep tried to escape from the place, but the vehicle skidded and fell into a ditch adjacent to the road passing through the jungle.

A video of the rhinos chasing the tourist vehicle has also surfaced online and is going viral.

I think it’s about time guidelines for safety and rescue in adventure sports are implemented in wildlife safaris across the country. Safaris are becoming more of adventure sports now!
Jaldapara today! pic.twitter.com/ISrfeyzqXt

— Akash Deep Badhawan, IFS (@aakashbadhawan) February 25, 2023

According to eyewitnesses, the two rhinoceroses got involved in a fight in the bushes adjacent to the road when the safari jeep reached the spot and stopped. As a few tourists were clicking photographs and shooting videos of the fighting animals, the attention of the latter shifted towards the jeep.

The driver of the jeep, Kamal Gazi, who suffered minor injuries, said that he has been in this profession for a long time, but he has never come across such a situation. “Fortunately, no one has been killed. Things could have been worse,” Gazi said.

All the injured tourists were immediately shifted to the local Madarihat health centre. The condition of two of them is reportedly serious and they have been shifted to the Alipurduar district hospital.