‘Rogue jumbo outpacing us, not afraid of crackers and torches’

Chaibasa: On the morning of January 10, we circled the rogue elephant in the Benisagar forest of West Singhbhum district. The elephant had already killed 19 people in the region since January 1.

The night before, it killed two persons in a hamlet in the Majhgaon block of the district.So terrifying was its presence that locals had emptied their mud houses and sought refuge in a handful of pucca homes in their village. While the women and children slept inside the concrete homes of village heads or affluent farmers, the men spent their nights chilling under the stars on rooftops, often lying in stacks of hay to keep themselves warm.We had been tracking the elephant since January 6, when it entered the Chaibasa forest range and killed five people in one swift night raid in a village.The local village heads, the mundas, had been informing us of the tusker’s movements. However, by the time our teams could reach him, the elephant had already disappeared. While we could negotiate 10-15 km of the hilly terrain in a day, looking for the elephant, it travelled up to 30 kilometres in a day.

This one was different; it was outpacing us all with its speed.The Kolhan division, which is home to Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary and Saranda forest, the largest Sal forest in Asia, overlaps with Odisha. For hundreds of years, these forests have been movement corridors for elephant herds. Increased human activities in the area in recent years have turned the region into a conflict zone between humans and elephants.The distinguishing mark of our killer elephant was a single tusk.

Besides its unique feature, the elephant is different in its approach to humans. While most of them run away seeing the flaming torches or the sound of crackers and tin cans, this elephant charges at them directly.In Benisagar forest in Majhgaon block, we were closing in on the rogue elephant from three sides with cranes, excavators and on foot. Besides my team of 20-odd foresters and forest guards, our counterparts from Odisha, three quick response teams of the state forest department, experts from Vantara, Wildlife SOS and an animal rescue squad from West Bengal were a part of it.

Our objective was to get within striking distance and fire a tranquilliser dart into the animal.

It was our first and only real chance to capture the animal and stop its killing spree in more than a week.What was creating problems for us was the presence of locals near the spot. Hundreds of men and women from nearby villages had gathered nearby to click photos and even made noises. Our men urged them to move to safety, but they would not budge.

Then, a few of them began pelting stones at the elephant. Enraged, this elephant charged at the crowd.Seeing him coming, the men ran for cover, but Sukhlal Behera, a forest guard who was a part of the animal rescue squad from West Bengal, found himself in the middle of the charging elephant and the retreating crowd. As he attempted to get out of the tusker’s way, Behera slipped and fell into a crater, hidden between dense vegetation.Before Behera was able to pick himself up, the tusker caught up to him. I watched in horror from 50 metres away as the elephant picked Behera up with his trunk and thrashed him to the ground repeatedly.After a few minutes, the elephant dropped him and retreated into the dense Jashipur forest in the bordering Keonjhar district of Odisha, roughly a few hundred metres away. We took Behera to a nearby primary health centre.

He was in a critical condition. The doctors referred him to a govt hospital in Keonjhar, but he died on the way.Ever since fatally injuring Behera, the elephant remained entrenched in Jashipur Forest. The team from West Bengal left, carrying their fallen comrade, a day later. Teams from Vantara and Wildlife SOS left too. Our team, however, remains in the area. The owner of a stone crusher unit provided us with a dormitory in his unit. For two weeks now, it has been our home. Patrolling is underway by day and by night, and the focus now is to prevent the elephant from slipping back into Jharkhand. (The writer, Jitendra Prasad Singh, is the forest range officer of Chaibasa range in West Singhbhum district, where the elephant killed 20 people)