Asian elephant india
An elephant crosses National Highway-37, which passes through the Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam in India BIJU BORO/AFP/Getty Images

To anyone uninformed, elephants may come across as mellow animals, but in reality these creatures can be extremely aggressive, especially if they feel threatened. This was the case in India, where a wild elephant trampled a man who was attempting to take a photo of it.

The incident took place on the National Highway 31 which runs through the Lataguri forest area of Jalpaiguri district in the state of West Bengal, which has a large population of pachyderms.

Sadik Rahman, a 40-year-old bank security guard, was heading to work when he spotted the animal by the side of the road, eating grass. He got out of his car in the hopes of getting a close-up photo.

The elephant approached the man and pushed him to the ground before trampling him and kicking his prone body around. Rahman died on the spot.

The attack was caught on camera by other people on the road, though no one made the same mistake of getting close to the animal.

"It seemed Rahman was inviting the tusker towards him. The elephant moved very slowly and he had time to run away," Ujjwal Ghosh the chief conservator of forest (wild life)-North, told Hindustan Times.

Elephants are known to cross the highway since it is flanked on both sides by forest area. "Elephants are common in this area; they cross this highway almost every day and the custom is no one steps out of their vehicle," a forest official told NDTV. "Sadik dared to confront the elephant and got killed."

Human-elephant conflicts have been on the rise as more and more forest area is being encroached on. According to forest department records, West Bengal saw 84 people being killed by elephants in 2016 alone.

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