Two wild elephants that were tranquillised on Tuesday afternoon after they had strayed into Howrah were taken to Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve on separate trucks on Wednesday

The reserve is spread across Bankura and West Midnapore and shares borders with forests in Odisha and Jharkhand.

“The herd these two males were part of is roaming the area (the forests in West Midnapore and Bankura). After being released, these two should find their way to the herd,” an official in the state forest department said.

The two, first spotted by residents of Uttar Bhatora village in the Amta division of Howrah on Monday morning, were darted and tranquillised the next afternoon. The job was done by a local team, while an expert from Calcutta was on stand-by.

Forest department officials said Howrah was not part of the elephant corridor. The two elephants had lost their way and swam across two rivers to reach Howrah.

The animals left for the reserve on a truck each around 11am on Wednesday.

The forest department had initially mulled radio-collaring the two before releasing them in the wild. But the plan has been shelved as the pachyderms are too young. “They are sub-adults. Both are in their early twenties. If collared, the leash will become tighter as the neck grows in size,” the official said.

The animal being taken to Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve The Telegraph picture

A project to radio-collar elephants in south Bengal has been in the pipeline but has not yet been implemented because one hurdle after another, such as the sighting of a tiger in the Lalgarh forests, kept coming up.

“Had the elephants been adults, we would have radio-collared them. It will be done in the future but not with these two elephants,” Ravi Kant Sinha, chief wildlife warden in Bengal, told Metro. “We don’t keep elephants in captivity unless they are problematic and very aggressive. These two are just like lost kids.”

Residents of Uttar Bhatora and adjacent villages had alleged that the elephants had injured at least one of them.

But forest officials said the man, aged around 55, fell in a ditch while running from the animals and suffered minor injuries.

After the two were darted and tied near a bamboo grove on Tuesday, hundreds of residents surrounded them. The forest guards deployed to cordon off the animals were outnumbered by the villagers, some of whom were carrying flaming torches and others were jostling with each other to click the two.

“The drug in the darts was not enough to put the elephants to sleep. They could see things around them but were drowsy,” a forest department official said.

Two trucks arrived late on Tuesday to ferry the animals. The village roads through which they would carry the elephants to the reserve had to be strengthened before the journey started.

The trucks had adequate food and water for the animals. A team of forest officials, vets and a tranquillising expert accompanied the elephants.