Video: Bison Rams Into An Auto Rickshaw, Nearly Flips It In Kerala

Deforestation and wildlife disturbance on a regular basis might lead to hazardous animal-human conflict. When a video of an Indian bison running over an auto-rickshaw went viral earlier this week, it served as an illustration of this type of debate.

In the viral video, an autorickshaw was struck by an Indian bison in Kerala. An observer who witnessed the horrifying event recorded it on a mobile device.

The wild animal can be seen charging at the rickshaw in the footage before striking it. The vehicle is then raised by the bison while the driver is perched inside it on its horns.

The video was posted on Twitter by a popular account named WildLense Eco Foundation (@WildLense_India). The video was captioned as, "Never underestimate the Gaur/Indian Bison. Maintain proper distance, otherwise it can be fatal."

The video has more than 387,000 views and about 4,000 likes. The video stunned and worried viewers, who left several comments.

Indian bison are primarily found in the Western Ghats' mountainous regions, such as Bandipur, Wayanad, and Mudumalai. They are large cattle, with males weighing over 800 kg and females weighing over 700 kg.

Bison populations in mainland South and Southeast Asia were historically found in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, and Nepal.The species' current range is extremely fragmented, and Sri Lanka is where it has gone extinct.

Twitter users who commented on the video mentioned similar experiences they had when coming across Indian bison.

Some users blamed the shining headlights of vehicles for this aggressive behaviour by the animals. One user wrote, "I believe the fancy shining light must have intimidated the wild."

One user with a handle named @judy_somaiah wrote, "A horrifying experience well etched in my memory. Happened when I was 9 years old. ‘Nagarhole,' dusk had fallen, my maternal uncle was driving a jeep with headlights on, encountered a herd of bisons, something triggered, a bull charged & toppled the jeep into a ditch. We were fortunate to be alive with injuries. Later, I was told by the forest officials that bisons are highly sensitive towards headlights. Though bulky, though bulky they are fast runners and highly agile animals. It's the headlights!"