There is a route from Mysore in Karnataka to Wayanad district in Kerala that passes through two national parks (Nagarhole and Bandipur). The route passes through the sanctuaries and travel is only allowed during daylight hours cause of the animals. The thing is the forest guards only regulate the traffic at the entrance of the parks, so once you're in...you're own your own. They do warn you about elephants and tigers though.
We passed a lot of female herds without any trouble. Just stop your car and let them cross the road and they won't trouble you. If you're lucky you might even get to see a calf among them. Anyway, we ran into a bull elephant on the side of the road. Single, male and undergoing musth
Didn't see him time to stop the car, and got too close. It kinda got aggressive and we made the mistake of honking to warn the car behind us with the rest of the family. Have you seen a fully grown elephant descending from a hill side? It doesn't walk down, it rolls and slides down very quickly.
Ended up chasing us for about a 500 meters, trumpeting all the time and took a couple of swings to the side. Didn't help that the government put speed bumps on the road to slow cars down and avoid hitting animals.
TLDR: If you see an elephant with a dark liquid flowing from behind it's eyes, run like hell.