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A herd of about 70 elephants found the homemade fermented rice drink stored in barrels for a local festival and drank it, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Friday.

They then staggered through the surrounding remote villages in the states of Orissa and West Bengal and began "to fall asleep hither and thither, throwing life completely haywire", said Bijay Kumar Panda, a local administrator.

Such incidents are becoming more common, wildlife experts say.

With pristine forest increasingly rare, Indian elephants no longer avoid contact with humans, Amirtharaj Williams of the World Wildlife Fund said.

"These herds are effectively semi-urbanised", Williams said. "There are elephants who are getting a taste for food that humans prepare because it is tastier, stronger-smelling and often more nutritious and that includes rice- or molasses-based drinks.

"Some go looking for it."

Around 400 people are killed each year by elephants in India and nearly 2.4 million acres of farmland damaged, The Guardian said.

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