PATNA: 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.