Wild jumbo tramples five, returns to Nepal

ARARIA/ PATNA: A wild elephant, which trampled five persons to death in
several villages situated along the Indo-Nepal border in Supaul district
over the last two days, returned to the forests in Nepal on Thursday night.

While officials claimed that five persons were killed by the wild elephant
before it returned to its native forest, locals claimed that six more persons
were undergoing treatment after they were attacked and injured by the
elephant.

Police sources said the incident began on Wednesday evening when a
group of elephants from the forest areas in neighbouring Nepal ventured
into Supaul villages and started attacking farmers and village dwellers. A tusker which was separated from its herd entered Lalpur hamlet of Bhimnagar village under Basanpur block and started the rampage at Baswantpatti village under Karjain gram panchayat and injured a woman. After damaging hutments and other dwellings, the elephant continued with the rampage at Motipur village of Raghopur block.

Some villagers were injured while they were trying to flee from the spots and several others were injured by the tusker. About 35km away from the Indo-Nepal border, the elephant also crushed many hutments of the villagers making them roofless.

According to a rough estimate, standing crops, including maize and moong spread over an area of around 100 acers in Supaul have also been damaged by the elephant.

State chief wildlife warden A K Pandey said though an elephant rescue team was sent from Patna to either drive away the jumbo back to Nepal or tranqualise it but it returned on its own. “We also held a meeting with the forest officials from Nepal, who told us that they are planning to shift the elephant to Chitwan National Park. We told them that next time any such incident we will tranqualise the elephant to avoid causality,” Pandey told TOI.

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