The tale of the deadly elephant named Osama Bin Laden
We humans really do suffer from main character syndrome, don’t we? We always have to be the innocent victims of nature and her cruel, unjust machinations.
This is despite the fact that in more or less every example of the natural world giving us a kicking, it’s due to the fact that we’ve taken advantage of something. I mean, just look at the climate crisis we’re going to drive ourselves extinct with. It’s not the natural world that’s going to make coastal cities and pretty much everywhere near the equator uninhabitable in about ten years; it’s us. Yet most people (especially most powerful people) will happily bury their heads in the sand about it.
It’s not just on that scale, either; you can see it in the way that we talk about the animal kingdom as well. Animals that harm or kill people while defending their territory are invariably put down for acting the way most humans would act if a strange being advanced on their territory. Hell, it’s what most humans do when other humans appear to be advancing on their territory, yet for us the death penalty is “barbaric” and “inaccurate”. Figures.
I’m joking (kinda), but there is something particularly galling about the story of Osama Bin Laden. Now, that is a very, very strange sentence to write, but I’m actually not talking about the infamous emir of al-Qaeda, I promise. I’m instead talking about something with a lot more humanity to it. Something that can actually recognise and empathise with other beings and display genuine love and affection to them too.
That’s right, I’m talking about Osama Bin Laden, the rogue bull elephant.
Wait, sorry, what’s going on with this elephant?
Good question. So, in 2004, a herd of elephants began attacking human settlers in the jungled Sonitpur district of the Indian state of Assam. This herd seemed to have a ringleader elephant, distinguishable by the fact that he had no tusks. He was also tough, even by the standards of Asian elephants, measuring about ten feet tall and seemingly having no fear of the standard ways of warding off elephants from human settlements like firecrackers.
Now, let’s be a hundred per cent clear. This was no Jaws situation where an animal seemingly goes mental, seeking out humans to sate some sort of bloodlust. This herd was having their natural habitat destroyed by human activity, and thus, the herd was foraging for food in human settlements and refused to go quietly when the people responsible for it said, “How dare you try and make me face the consequences of my actions!” The elephant began to amass quite the body count, and once he had over ten confirmed kills to his name, because it was 2004, humans named him Osama Bin Laden. A bit harsh, I think.
From 2004 to 2006, his herd killed around 250 people while foraging for food in the only places that were available to them due to humans destroying their natural habitat. Mainly thanks to poisoning and traps, around the same number of elephants from that herd were killed during that time as well. Bin Laden himself reached 27 confirmed kills before he was shot and killed in December 2006.
Thanks to him, several other elephants with a (pretty justifiable) hatred of humans have been given the same name. An elephant in 2008 in Jharkhand with 11 fatalities to its name, another with five in 2019 and one in January 2026, which in a single week killed 22 people. All of which were named Osama Bin Laden or Laden by their trackers.
Hell of a legacy to have.