An elephant on Friday morning killed a 65-year-old woman near Jhargram, prompting the district administration to form a dozen teams to guard the town and other localities from the animal’s attacks.

In the past 48 hours, four persons were killed in elephant attacks in Jhargram.Sources said each team would have foresters and local people, who are experts in driving elephants, to guard the areas from where animals enter localities in the past few months.

“We have conducted a meeting with foresters and decided to form teams to guard the bordering areas with forest.“The elephants involved in the attacks were those that got separated from the herd. So, we have to keep a vigil on animals, especially roaming the area after getting separated from the herd,” said Sunil Agarwala, the Jhargram district magistrate.

Sources said, there were at least three such elephants raiding the localities, including Jhargram town, in the past two months. On Friday morning, Lakshmi Mahata, 65, was killed as a wild elephant threw her on the grounds multiple times in front of his sister-in-law Subhadra, whose leg was broken by the animal.

The duo, residents of Nedarbahara village, only around four kilometers away from Jhargram town, were on their way to the paddy field and suddenly came across the wild animal on the village road.

Subhadra is admitted to Jhargram district hospital, but Lakhsmi died in the attack. On Thursday evening, another elephant injured Hemanta Mahato, a villager, while he was returning from a rural market. He has also been admitted to the Jhargram hospital. Foresters said, usually elephants raided human habitat or mounted attacks on people between dusk and dawn. Officials said it was important to guard the routes of elephants, especially at night.Sources in the forest department said in the past two months at least 15 incidents of elephant attacks had been reported, including six in the Jhargram town areas.

This prompted the government to plan a strategy to tackle the situation in the face of protest by people. Following multiple deaths in a span of two days and incidents of raids by elephants, panic gripped local people and many decided to stop getting out of their homes after dusk.

“It is really a threat to our lives as the elephants are entering the town and killing people. The forest department should trace out the animals first and install a GPS tracker on them by tranquilizing those to locate their movement. Otherwise, it is risky for us to move around safely,” said Soumen Acharyya, a Trinamul worker and local youth in Jhargram.

“We are not against elephants but we want a peaceful settlement of the ongoing human-animal conflict,” Acharyya added.Foresters said that installing GPS trackers was not easy, as elephants kept moving in from various areas.