One of five elephants that strayed into Jhargram town on Thursday morning was killed after being speared by a burning iron rod, apparently by a member of a hula party — squads comprising local residents armed with searchlights, flaming torches and crackers and deployed to steer jumbos away from human settlements, said forest department officials on Friday.

The elephant, later darted with a sleep gun, was brought to the Jhargram zoo for treatment. It died on Friday afternoon.

A tusker that was part of the group killed a man before it was also tranquillised and released into the wild, said a forest official.

Animal lovers alleged that hula parties were at play in full view of the forest personnel. They pointed to a 2018 Supreme Court order that banned the use of fire torches and cannon balls on elephants.

A forest official rejected the allegation and said the hulas that speared the elephant were part of an unregulated mob.

Videos shared on social media show the elephant unable to walk and writhing in pain, the burning rod stuck above its hind legs.

Forest sources said five elephants entered Jhargram town from the forest on Thursday morning. They said the group included a tusker, two female adults, a calf and a sub-adult.

“The tusker got separated from the rest of the group and grew restless. It killed an aged man who came in the way,” said the forest official. It was tranquillised in the afternoon and released back into the forest around 4pm.

The four other elephants were stuck in a thicket near Jhargram Raj College.

“A crowd of over 1,000 people gathered soon. It blocked all the exit routes that the elephants might have taken to go back to the forest. We then decided to wait for sundown to guide the elephants towards the forest,” said a forest source.

The members of the hula parties allegedly kept throwing fireballs, flaming torches and burning iron sticks at the elephants.

One of the sticks pierced one of the female elephants around 4.30pm on Thursday, said a local source, who works with a wildlife NGO. “The elephant collapsed on the ground,” the source added.

The other female, the calf and the sub-adult went back to the forest around 8.30pm. The injured elephant was tranquillised and lifted with the help of a crane and then brought to the Jhargram zoo. “It was undergoing treatment. But it died around 1.20pm on Friday,” said an official.

“The hula members tortured the elephants in full view of the forest department personnel,” said a member of the Human and Environment Alliance League (HEAL).

Debal Ray, the chief wildlife warden of Bengal, said: “The elephant was initially treated locally. Around midnight, when it was not responding to treatment, we brought it to the Jhargram zoo. A medical board was also formed but it could not be saved.”

“We will find out the person who inflicted the injury on the animal. We will see the end of it,” he said.

The post-mortem report will reveal the cause of death, said Umar Imam, the divisional forest officer of Jhargram.