Wild moment tourists escape elephant in Sri Lanka

Publish date: 2024-08-27

It’s not every day that you meet an elephant – and when you do, you don’t expect it to break into your van.

But that’s exactly what happened to the Basanayake family, tourists from Perth on holiday in Sri Lanka.

Visiting the Yala National Park, the van they were driving in was blocked when the animal emerged from the brush and approached the vehicle.

A user on Newsflare reported that the animal came across the family on a road on their way to the Sithulpawwa temple.

They added the elephant, Nitra, is notorious for its behavior in the park.

Once the car had stopped, Nitra used its trunk to smash the window, reaching inside to attempt to take whatever it could find in search of food.

Visiting the Yala National Park, the Basanayake family’s van was blocked when an elephant emerged from the bush. Newsflare

Kasun Basanayake told the BBC that Nitra “started sniffing around our feet for food,” and that he was told by the driver to give it anything that they had in the vehicle.

“So I fed it my son’s leftover sandwich,” he said.

“He told me to throw the rest out the window, so I did and the driver then managed to speed off … Those sandwiches and chips probably saved our lives.”

Once the car had stopped, the elephant, whose name is Nitra, used its trunk to smash the window and reached inside. Newsflare
Kasun Basanayake told the BBC that Nitra “started sniffing around our feet for food,” and that he was told by the driver to give it anything that they had in the vehicle. Newsflare

Yala National Park is the most visited national park in Sri Lanka and will contain hundreds of elephants at a time.

The road the Basanayake family drove on is a reported hotspot for elephants in search of food.

Sithulpawwa Rajamaha Viharaya is a Buddhist monastery located deep within the park and has been around for over two thousand years.

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