---
title: "Wild Elephant Reportedly Killed Woman, Returned to Trample Corpse at Funeral"
description: "Awomen was walking to collect water when a wild elephant strayed from its sanctuary and attacked. The elephant trampled her corpse at the funeral."
date: "2022-06-18"
modified: "2022-06-18"
authors:
  - name: "Lonnie Lee Hood"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/ahood"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/wild-elephant-trampled-funeral"
categories:
  - "Climate Change"
  - "Environment"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "climate change"
  - "elephant"
  - "india"
  - "the digest"
---

# Wild Elephant Reportedly Killed Woman, Returned to Trample Corpse at Funeral

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/wild-elephant-trampled-funeral.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Alexey Demidov\</em\>*

## Past Life

They say elephants never forget, but nobody ever told us how seriously true that could be.

Police in India said this week, [via *Newsweek*](<https://www.newsweek.com/elephant-kills-woman-returns-funeral-tramples-corpse-india-1715075>), that a 17-year-old women was walking to collect water when a wild elephant strayed from its sanctuary and attacked the 70-year-old, who later died from the injuries at a hospital. But in an extraordinary twist, they say, the elephant returned to her funeral and grabbed her body from the funeral pyre, trampling the corpse before finally fleeing.

Duncan McNair, a lawyer and founder of conservation charity Save The Asian Elephants, told *Newsweek* elephants can be extremely dangerous and are very intelligent, although human-elephant conflict usually happens only when the elephant is provoked.

"These endangered elephants can be deadly dangerous, particularly when provoked or abused," McNair told the outlet.

## Cold Blood

The entire case was bizarre enough to go [viral online](<https://twitter.com/letsgoayo/status/1536149184771915776?s=20&t=S5JyNSaeyWVPb5srfk4J3A>), though details about the case do strain credulity. To be fair, though, it is true that elephants are known to [hold grudges](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSt0FImxM1g>), hold [funerals](<https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/harperkids/the-five-animals-that-grieve#:~:text=Elephants%20do%20grieve%2C%20and%20they,bodies%20and%20to%20the%20bones.>), display [empathy](<https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/blogs/understanding-emotional-lives-elephants>) and exhibit other traits that prove how deeply their memory and emotions run.

Adding to the drama, [TikTok sleuths went on to claim](<https://www.tiktok.com/foryou?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7110009083780009262#/@turtiaturtle/video/7110009083780009262>) the woman was a poacher, and that the elephant must've been on a vengeful mission.

We all know TikTok sleuths aren't [exactly professionals](<https://www.tiktok.com/discover/Conspiracy-Theories?lang=en>). Plus, immediately chalking the incident up to a mere comic-book storyline plot without question — even if it is completely true — also neglects the fact that [elephant-human conflic](<https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/endangered_species/elephants/asian_elephants/areas/issues/elephant_human_conflict/#:~:text=Elephant%2Dhuman%20conflict%20is%20a,than%20ivory%20and%20habitat%20degradation.>)t arises from territory loss.

**More on Earth's talented creatures:** [*Scientists Discovered Superworms That Can Survive on Eating Just Styrofoam* ](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientsts-discover-superworms-eat-plastic-styrofoam>)