An elephant which had strayed close to Medinipur town was tranquillised by the forest department on Tuesday.
Based on an initial assessment, the sub-adult male, a loner, is suspected to have been behind more than one human death in the past week, said a forest official.
The human-elephant conflict in West Bengal has aggravated this year. More than 90 people have been killed by elephants in the state so far in 2022-23, said forest officials. In 2021-22, the number was around 75.
At least seven persons have been killed by elephants in the Kharagpur, Jhargram and Medinipur forest divisions in the past nine days, according to the forest department.
On Sunday, two women were killed in Paschim Medinipur district. One had ventured into a forest and another was attacked at her home, said locals.
The elephant captured on Tuesday was the fourth “troublemaker” to have been darted in the past few months, forest officials said. The previous three have been relocated in the wild, one in a forest along the West Bengal-Jharkhand border and two to Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipurduar, in north Bengal.
On Tuesday, the elephant was spotted near Kharagpur in the morning. It crossed the Kangsabati river and was spotted near Medinipur town in the afternoon.
The elephant had strayed to Gopegarh Eco Park, on the outskirts of Medinipur town, where it was finally tranquillised, said forest officials.
The park, spread across 40 hectares, is around 30km from Kharagpur and 135km from Kolkata.
“The park had visitors at that time. The main concern was to take them to safety. We tried to send the elephant to the direction of the forests but in vain. A range officer in the Medinipur division was injured during the capture. He lost his balance as the animal came charging towards him. He escaped miraculously,” Sandeep Berwal, divisional forest officer of the Medinipur forest division, said on Tuesday.
After tranquillisation, the elephant was taken to the Jhargram Zoo for a detailed medical examination, said Berwal.
The Telegraph reported on March 1 that the forest department had identified several elephants, all tuskers and loners, which officials said were responsible for the majority of deaths in the forests of south Bengal in 2022-23. The Centre has allowed the relocation of 10 such jumbos.
Since elephant is a Schedule I animal and accorded maximum protection under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, a permission from the Centre is mandatory before capture and relocation of the animal.
Soumitra Dasgupta, head of the forest force in West Bengal, said the majority of deaths in the past “seven-eight days” have been inside forests.
“This is the time when mahua flowers blossom in the forests. Despite repeated warnings, villagers ventured inside forests to gather these flowers,” he said.
The Dalma elephants were now on their way back to Jharkhand, said forest officials. Most of them would go up to a dam near the forests of Chakulia, in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, before starting their journey to Bengal again, they said.
“The return journey usually starts in June. They spend around nine months in the forests of Bengal,” said one of them. “We have requested local politicians to try and persuade villagers not to enter forests now. The elephants are on their way out of Bengal, towards Jharkhand. In the next 15-20 days, the elephants are expected to have moved out of Paschim Medinipur to Jharkhand. We are spreading the word through local communication channels. We are hoping things will improve. The DFOs have been asked to step up vigil inside the forests,” said Dasgupta, the head of the forest force.