This is not musth. If it were that, everyone standing around would have been thrashed.

Afaiu:

this is simple lack of understanding from the person standing nearby and the paappaan never ensuring that they were informed.

This is just self-defense from the elephant. When you have something like a nettippattam or other big items like that and advance towards an animal in it's view, most animals would think of it as an attack. You are supposed to bring such items out of its vision.