Forest Department Drives Elephant Herd Back into Forest After Killing Four People in Cooch Behar
One Elephant Sedated and Lifted Into Vehicle With Crane
On Friday night, foresters were able to drive the six-elephant herd that had murdered four people in the Mathabhanga subdivision in the Cooch Behar district back into the forest.
One of the six elephants needed to be sedated on Saturday and lifted into a vehicle with the aid of a crane.
"On Friday night, we may send five or six elephants into the bush. According to Bijon Kumar Nath, the Cooch Behar division's assistant divisional forest officer, "the last elephant was also sent back into the forest on Saturday."
On Thursday, the elephants from the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary wandered into the Dinhata subdivision, an area inhabited by humans. They arrived to Mathabhanga on Friday, when an assault by elephants claimed the lives of four people and wounded three more.
More than 150 forest guards from Alipurduar's Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary were hired, according to a forest department source, to transport the elephants to Jaldapara on Friday night. Five elephants were driven back into the forest, while one elephant persisted in the Mathabhanga subdivision's Ghoksadanga region.
"We tranquilized the elephant yesterday night close to the Ruidanga area. However, the animal unexpectedly freed itself and sought refuge in a nearby paddy field while we were attempting to hoist it over a vehicle using a rope, according to a forester.
"To prevent the animal from leaving the area, we roped it off and kept a careful eye on it. The official said, "We were able to successfully transport the animal inside the forest on a truck early on Saturday."
The relatives of the dead were contacted by a Trinamul team headed by Abhijit Dey Bhowmik, the president of the district committee for Cooch Behar, and Udayan Guha, the minister for north Bengal development.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister, has promised that the forest department would soon provide compensation to the surviving family members of the dead. We have paid the relatives of the victims a visit and have shared the chief minister's message with them," Guha said.
