A wild elephant has wreaked such havoc in parts of Bihar’s eastern
Bhagalpur district that anxious forest authorities have requisitioned
help of a certified shooter from Hyderabad to tame the animal.
The wild tusker trampled a man to death in Kahalgaon subdivision of
Bhagalpur district on Thursday and left two others seriously injured
in the same locality on Wednesday, said Sanjay Kumar Sinha, the
divisional forest officer (DFO).
Believed to have entered Bhagalpur district from forests in
neighbouring Jharkhand’s Godda district, the elephant has been roaming
from village to village with gay abandon and rushing to trample people
coming in front of it. It has also damaged a few huts and some mustard
crops ready for harvesting, said officials.
“We have already deployed a team of experts from Bankura district in
neighbouring West Bengal. They have used tranquilisers, but with
little success so far in bringing the wild tusker to control,” said
regional chief conservator of forests (RCCF) Prashant Kumar Gupta.
“This is why we have requisitioned the services of Shahnawaz Safat
Ali, a certified shooter from Hyderabad. His arrival is expected
soon,” he added.
The pachyderm, which is spotted in one block of the district one day
and in another the next day for the past four days, trampled an
elderly man, Lakhan Das, to death in Alampur district. It also left
two men – Uday Kant Mahto and Narayan Sahni of Sadanand Baisa village
– badly injured on Wednesday, said forest officials.
Forest department officials said rising instances of human
interference in forests and dwindling sources of water could be a
reason behind elephants entering human habitations. “Although
Bhagalpur district does not fall in the migratory area of wild
elephants, there are rare cases, such as the present one, of wild
elephants from parts of Jharkhand straying here,” said Gupta.