Jharkhand forest department on Wednesday issued orders for tranquilisation and rehabilitation of the tusker which has so far killed 16 persons in different districts of the state this month.

The principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife), Jharkhand, Shashikar Samanta, said that the tranquilisation order for the lone tusker has been issued.

“We have issued an order to tranquilise and rehabilitate the tusker on the basis of the report submitted by a team of forest officials of various districts in which it had caused casualties of human life and after verification that it was the same elephant,” said Samanta.

The senior forest official also informed that they are working out modalities of rehabilitation of the elephant after it is tranquilised.

“We want the elephant to be away from human habitats to prevent man-animal conflict during the rehabilitation period. We are searching for the exact location where the elephant can be kept in the state,” said Samanta.

Sources in the forest department confirmed that the forest department is also seeking help from experts from other states to tranquilise the elephant.

“Tranquilising animals requires expertise and unfortunately we do not have it in Jharkhand. We sought help from Hyderabad for tranquilising a leopard (it has gone traceless) in Garhwa-Latehar a few weeks back. We might seek help from similar experts for the elephant too,” said the official preferring anonymity. Divisional forest officer, Ranchi, Shrikant Verma said that the elephant is currently stationed at the Puriyo forest patch in Itki block, around 30km from Ranchi city.