Forest department officials have decided to carry out a joint drive with their counterparts in Bengal to drive away the three elephants that have killed three persons including a 5-year-old girl near a village in Chakulia bordering Bengal,

The small herd is anchored in a small patch of jungle near Bankati village at Chakulia in Ghatshila sub-division. It killed a 45-year-old man on Saturday, a 28-year-oldwoman and her five-year-old daughter on Monday. It has also damaged houses as well as paddy stock over the past one week. The herd enters Bankati village after sunset, but leaves just before the daybreak.

Jamshedpur divisional forest officer (DFO) Abhishek Kumar said the forest department's quick response team (QRT) had driven away the herd twice after getting complaints of house and paddy stock being damaged.

The elephants, however, keep returning to the same village.

“As the herd has become accustomed to the Bankati village and is getting increasingly violent, we have decided to carry out a drive jointly with the forest department of Bengal. We will drive the small herd of killer elephants to a deep jungle,” the DFO said.

He refused to elaborate where the herd would be driven away to, saying that the villages surrounding the jungle would not allow them to carry out the drive if they came to know.

Abhishek said they have already held talks with their counterparts in Bengal's Jhargram district.

Chakulia is part of the elephant corridor from Jhargram and Midnapore districts of Bengal to Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary.