Elephant Monument in Teluk Intan, Malaysia
Elephants have a reputation for having excellent memories. They are also known for never forgiving. There are stories in which elephants took revenge on people for cruelty. Not so long ago, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, a herd of 44 elephants trampled a man to death, breaking into a village whose inhabitants had killed a one-year-old elephant shortly before.
In Uganda, there have been many cases of wild elephants attacking villagers and destroying homes, which scientists believe may have been acts of revenge for poaching incidents that occurred 20 to 30 years ago. Scientists suggest that the trauma of seeing the death of family members or being orphaned at a young age caused elephants something comparable to post-traumatic stress disorder. The lack of maternal care and a senior guardian may have spawned a generation of "teenage delinquent" elephants who wreak havoc in African villages.
Another case of how an elephant took revenge on people occurred in Malaysia. The incident happened over 100 years ago. At that time, this country of Southeast Asia still abounded with wildlife and tropical jungles, and elephants roamed freely in what is today the large district of Hilir-Perak.
In 1885, the British built a railroad to transport tin from the outlying states of the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia to coastal ports. The first railway line connected Port Weld with the city of Taiping, located in the heart of the tin-rich Larut Valley in the state of Perak. A year later, in 1886, the railway was extended and connected Lumpur and Klang. In 1893, a line was opened between the cities of Teluk Anson (now called Teluk Intan) and Tapah Road.
A year later, in 1894, a baby elephant was hit by a train in Teluk Anson, resulting in the animal's death. The next day (or perhaps a few days later), September 17, 1894, a steam locomotive with 3 passenger cars was returning from Perak, in which merchants and mine workers were traveling, when suddenly the driver noticed a large male elephant standing defiantly on the tracks facing an oncoming train. It happened at dusk and the scene was dark because it was in a wooded area. The driver gave a horn, but the elephant did not run away. Instead, he rammed the train, derailing it and killing two passengers. The elephant itself did not survive the attack.
The British government was so moved by the deed of this wild elephant that they erected an Elephant Monument by the railway track at the very spot where this accident occurred. During the Second World War, this road ceased to function and was dismantled.
The skull of this elephant is currently kept in the Taiping City Museum, Perak, its almost 1 meter high femur is in the Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) Museum in Johor Bahru, and the tusks are believed to have been taken to England. The rest of the animal's carcass was buried at the site of the monument.
