Huge swarms of devotees gathered across India this month to celebrate the Hindu festival Ganesh Chaturthi, marking the birth of the deity Ganesha, the elephant-headed, round-bellied god of ...

This story appears in the August 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine. The royalty of India—Hindu and Muslim—understood long ago that power was best wielded from the back of an elephant.

Two captive elephants spooked by firecrackers caused a stampede during a religious festival in India. The jumbos wearing gold-coloured metal headdresses were being paraded outside Manakulangara ...