Mother elephant reunited with herd after losing calf in river drowning

Following the unwavering efforts of fifty foresters over the course of more than twenty-four hours, the mother elephant in Jhargram, which had been hostile on Wednesday after failing to save its child from drowning in a river, began to calm down on Thursday morning and was reunited with its herd by evening.

"On Thursday morning, the mother elephant approached the herd more closely, but it did not reconnect with the group at that time. Instead, it kept a distance of about 100 meters from the other animals for several hours. The mother was clearly in grief. It is commonplace for elephants. Our foresters worked through the night starting on Wednesday to return the animal to its herd. It eventually got back together with the other animals in the herd this evening," Shivanand Ram, the Kharagpur divisional forest officer, said.

Currently, the mother elephant and the remaining members of the herd are situated in the Kharagpur division's Khas Jungle-11 forest region.

On Wednesday morning, the six-month-old male calf perished in the Surbarnarekha river in Jhargram's Nayagram together with its mother and twelve other pachyderm elephants from a herd.

The mother elephant pulled the calf from a river ditch after a protracted struggle, but by then it had passed away. Following the loss of its calf, the mother lost control and killed two elderly people who had come after hearing the elephant's trumpet, along with about a hundred other villagers.

On the village road, the elephant also went on a rampage. It attempted to flip a parked private bus and destroyed a motorcycle.

In order to calm the elephants, the forest department dispatched a large number of its guards to guide the mother elephant back towards her herd.

"We did not find the assignment to be easy. The mother elephant, distraught about losing her child, trumpeted as she walked across the paddy fields. After encircling it from several directions, we drove it towards the woodland where the herd was positioned early on Thursday morning. The grieving elephant ate nothing, according to a forester.

Despite being reunited with herd, the mother elephant's ability to recover from the trauma of losing her youngster remained unknown, according to a senior forest official.

"The mother elephant's recovery from the trauma of losing its calf will take some time. We have so sent out a squad of forest guards to keep an eye on its operations. The good news is that it has returned to the herd and is no longer roaming alone, according to Ram.

Restitution

On Thursday afternoon, the relatives of Ananda Jana, 73, and Sashadhar Mahato, 63, who were slain by the mourning elephant, received compensation checks totaling Rs 5 lakh each from forest officials under the leadership of junior forest minister Birbaha Hansda.

A forest official stated that each of the departed families would have a member hired as a forest guard per government regulation.

Joyous alert

In an order to prevent more human-animal conflict during the holiday season, the forest department asked all Jungle Mahal divisions that are prone to elephant attacks to send out foresters armed with equipment.

Four Jungle Mahal district forest officials have requested that Durga Puja organizers in the area notify them right away if they come across a lone elephant or a herd of elephants in the area.

"We have given foresters extra searchlights and whistles and urged them to maintain a round-the-clock watch on elephant movements. If an elephant herd or lone animal is discovered close to a human habitat, they will ask that people stay indoors until the animals have left. During Durga Puja and Lakshmi Puja, we were all in a celebratory mood, thus we took these extra precautions," Bengal Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick stated.