A wild elephant crossing NH31C was killed when a car rammed into the animal on the fringes of Gorumara National Park and Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary in Jalpaiguri district on Thursday night.

“The car was damaged and the driver suffered injuries. But he did not stop on the spot. We informed police about the incident and they traced the car to a garage at Malbazar. Our department will take legal action against the driver and the vehicle’s owner,” said a senior Bengal forest department official.

Panjhora, where the elephant was killed, is around 10km from Malbazar.

“There are clear markings and signals on the particular stretch of NH31C that the road falls in an elephant crossing zone and vehicles should move at a lower speed. Even then, such an unfortunate incident took place,” the forester said.

According to the residents of Panjhora, the car was at a high speed when the accident occurred.

Veterinarians conducted a post-mortem on the carcass of the sub-adult elephant in the Panjhora beat of the Chapramari forest on Friday. They suspect the elephant died because of serious injuries and haemorrhage in the head.

Leopard skins seized

The forest department conducted a raid on the Naya Sylee tea estate in the Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri district on Thursday night and seized two leopard skins.

A team of foresters led by Ayan Chakraborty, the range officer of Gorumara south range, conducted the raid and arrested Sanicharoa Mahali, a resident of the garden.

“He will be produced in a court in Jalpaiguri and we will seek his custody. He needs to be interrogated to collect more details,” Chakraborty said.

According to him, the forest department had a tip-off that some people, who were associated with a racket that deals in animal parts, would hand over the leopard skins to prospective buyers in the tea garden.

The raid was conducted accordingly and the skins were found packed in bags. Apart from Mahali, some others were also on the spot but they managed to escape.

“One skin is of an adult leopard. The other appears to be the skin of a sub-adult leopard,” said a forester.

“We need to know whether the skins were smuggled in and if so, from where, or whether the animals were killed in the forests of our region.”