A video purportedly filmed shortly before the fatal elephant clash at Karnataka’s Dubare Elephant Camp has surfaced online following the death of a tourist from Chennai. The footage, which ET has not independently verified, appears to show a large crowd gathered near elephants being bathed in the Cauvery river, with some visitors attempting to touch a male elephant. It remains unclear whether the elephant seen in the video was the same tusker involved in the incident. The tragedy unfolded Monday at the popular Dubare camp in Kodagu district when two captive elephants — Kanchan and Marthanda — reportedly got into a sudden fight during a tourist elephant-bathing session. In the chaos, 33-year-old Jinsu from Chennai became trapped beneath Marthanda after the elephant lost balance while trying to evade an attack from Kanchan. She suffered severe head injuries and died on the way to hospital. Her husband Joel, an engineer, and their five-year-old daughter Jersey escaped with minor injuries.— ravikeerthi22 (@ravikeerthi22) Following the incident, the Karnataka forest department imposed sweeping restrictions on tourist interaction with captive elephants across all 14 elephant camps in the state. Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre directed officials to immediately enforce a minimum distance of 100 feet between tourists and elephants. Tourists will now only be allowed to watch elephants bathe from designated viewing areas. Authorities have also banned feeding, bathing and taking photographs with elephants from close range. Calling the incident “deeply shocking and unfortunate,” Khandre said the tragedy highlighted the unpredictable nature of wildlife, even when animals are trained and kept in captivity for years. “Understanding the behaviour of elephants and other wildlife is extremely difficult. Their instincts remain intact despite training. Henceforth, tourists should not touch elephant trunks, stand beside elephants for photographs, bathe them or feed them bananas, jaggery or sugarcane,” the minister said. The forest department has also been asked to prepare a detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for visitor safety at elephant camps, on the lines of recently introduced eco-tourism trekking guidelines. Officials have been instructed to strengthen crowd management and regulate tourist movement around captive animals. Officials said the aggressive behaviour displayed by Kanchan was not an isolated case. The tusker had earlier sparked panic during the 2024 Mysuru Dasara celebrations after allegedly breaking free while trying to evade another elephant, Dhananjaya, near the Mysore Palace premises. The incident reportedly led to damaged barricades and chaos among devotees and tourists.