Rajesh Banik, a sweet shop owner in Madarihat of Alipurduar, was shocked to see empty containers in his shop early on Saturday morning.
Sweets worth Rs 50,000 that he had readied late on Friday night for a wedding order had gone missing.
Eventually, CCTV footage revealed that the “thief” was a wild “makna” (a male elephant without tusks).
The elephant had stormed inside his shop around 2am on Saturday. Banik was then sleeping at home.
“As I checked the CCTV footage, I was surprised to see that the elephant entered my shop by damaging a wall. It then devoured all the sweets which I was supposed to deliver today (Saturday) for a wedding reception. Altogether, the elephant has eaten sweets worth Rs 50,000. I have never heard such an incident during my lifetime,” Banik, who is in his early forties, said.
His shop is located in Ashwininagar, a locality in Madarihat which is adjacent to the Jaldapara National Park.
Realising that the damage was done, Banik frantically called his staff to make fresh sweets for the wedding order.
“I have to bear the loss. But simultaneously, I didn’t want to put my client in an awkward position. That is why, I took the initiative to ensure that he got the sweets delivered by evening,” he said.
In north Bengal, wild elephants often break into primary schools in forest villages or on the fringes of forests in search of foodgrains stored for the midday meals of students.
“In fact, after repeated elephant attacks, authorities of many schools hide foodgrains. But it is rare to find an elephant entering a sweet shop and gobbling up all the sweets,” said a senior forester.
The elephant, foresters said, came out of Jaldapara and entered Ashwininagar. It broke one of the walls of Banik’s shop and started devouring the sweets.
Some bystanders informed foresters, but when a team from the elephant squad stationed in Madarihat reached the spot, the elephant had left. Navojit Dey, the assistant wildlife warden of Jaldapara National Park, said the elephant had been straying into certain areas of Madarihat in the past week.
