When you are driving on any Highway in India, you are faced with challenges like dealing with a single, or a herd of various animals. Here’s what works in my opinion.

1. If its a single cow (I mean number and not marital status), try and slow down, honk, thins usually stuns the cow and it will stop moving. Once this is achieved, navigate from the front of the cow keeping safe distance. Cows in south India have sharp horns than can dent your automobile.
2. If its a bull, avoid at any cost. They do not move, they may charge at you if you honk. A bull easily weighs close to a ton, and taking them on is not a wise idea.
3. If its multiple cows, come to a dead stop. Honk once, this will stun all the cows and they stop moving. Hence, don’t honk, just put the vehicle in neutral, and rev the engine. The growl of the engine usually gets them moving out of your path. If you have a noisy diesel, even better.
4. There is a Donkey in your path, static. Chances are, it will remain that way and won’t budge with any of the above techniques. The best is to slow down, and navigate around it.
5. If you are traveling though a wild life reserve, and you have a Deer in front of you. Stop, wait for the animal to pass. Under no circumstances, hit it, if you have enough bad luck, it could be a Black Buck.
6. Chicken, no issues, chances are they will move out of the way.
7. Goat, this is a tricky animal to pass as it has a habit of making sudden movements. The goat can actually jump forward and backward, hence, apply caution while passing a goat from any direction.
8. Do avoid dogs at any cost on a lonely stretch of the highway. Dogs will avoid your vehicle and given a chance they will chase the car.
9. Elephants, avoid from a distance. Specially if you are in a small black hatchback.
10. Cats, very unlikely you will see them on the road. They are fast animals, and chances are, they will manage to cross the road weather you see them or not.

Just thoughts.

The usual sight of cattle occupying the available road

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 11:20 am and is filed under Thought Process. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.