It was supposed to be the Indian wedding of the year but ended up in complete mayhem when two elephants (one in heat) went on a 15-hour rampage smashing vehicles, blocking traffic for hours and spreading panic in a town near Delhi (India). Almost 200 personnel were involved in the chase that ended after the elephants were shot with tranquilizer gun.

Apparently it was a bad night for 35-year-old Sheru. Every year, a male elephant is in heat for up to seven days — a period called Musth, where they become aggressive and difficult to control — and Wednesday happened to be one of those days for Sheru. His mahout Shamil had bungled with his calendar calculations, and when the elephant went berserk around 11 pm, he simply disappeared. Source: www.indianexpress.com

The son and daughter of senior politicians (BSP MP Kadir Rana’s son got married to the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Munquad Ali’s daughter ) in India was getting married in Meerut (a town near New Delhi, India). Elephants were brought for the grand wedding reception. Interestingly, one of the elephants was in heat. The trigger for the elephants going berserk is supposed to be celebratory firing of the guns and the fireworks.

According to police sources here, the supporters of the two MPs began incessantly firing in the air to celebrate the occasion, which continued for about an hour.
Irked by the indefinite firing, two of the elephants went berserk and ran towards the parking lot and began trampling the vehicles parked there.

The mahout of one of the elephants was thrown away by the animal and sustained injuries while trying to control the pachyderm, sources said.The incident caused considerable panic at the event and a number of VIP guests ran for cover.

The elephants were then taken to the nearby Meerut-Delhi bypass road where they continued to chase people and overturn vehicles. Forest department officials and police teams remained helpless spectators as the chaos led to a huge traffic jam on the highway.

The elephants were finally brought under control after an hour and were taken elsewhere. Other elephants were also removed from the reception venue.
A senior police official said that the long celebratory firing might have irritated the elephants.

According to the forest department officials, the sound of the hooter of the VIP vehicles or the wedding band might have also been responsible for the mayhem.
However, no case has yet been registered against the persons responsible for gun firing or those bringing the elephants to the wedding venue.Source: www.deccanherald.com

Reportedly, the wedding had 13 elephants, 15 camels and 42 horses in the reception.

Sounds like more of a zoo than a wedding! What do you think?