Source: Statesman News Service
January 23, 2008

Original Article

Unruly elephants driven out by trained ones (India)

BANKURA, Jan 23: The kunki (trained) elephants brought from the West Midnapore division have finally driven out the jumbo herd that had been rampaging the Bankura district for the past one month.
Out of the 72 that had been on the rampage, only a few remain to be driven out. Senior forest division officials of Bankura and Bishnupur are, however, optimistic that the remaining few would be driven out in the next couple of days.

Elephant herds from Dalma range in Jharkhand had intruded into the Bankura district and had been rampaging certain locations in Bankura. One of the villagers has been killed as a result of the elephant menace, while two others have been wounded severely. Several acres of cultivation land has been destroyed by the lumbering pachyderms. The divisional forest authorities however had reserved any drastic bid to drive out the herd as per its principal strategy. But owing to successive protests especially in Barjora, Sonamukhi and Beliatore range area villages, the authority finally agreed to push back the herds considering the continuos threat to human life and property from the elephants.

In the last week of December a fresh herd of 72 elephants comprising two tuskers and six calves entered the district through the Panchet Soil Conservation division pass from Dalma via Jhargram, Midnapore (West). Only in last September and October two herds comprising 70 and 62 elephants respectively had trespassed the Bankura stretches. The latest jumbo herd has added fresh stock of fear among the residents in Sonamukhi, Beliatore, Barjora ranges. The forest guards have observed that the jumbo herd was not in a mood to mingle with the other two already been loitering in Saharjora, Pavoya and Ghutgoria locations in Barjora and is maintaining a 'safe' distance. Such a gesture is usually seen on the eve of a clash.