Jumbo damages houses in Jhargram

Kolkata: A full-grown tusker caused massive destruction in Jhargram on Thursday morning. Following the incident, the traffic on state highway No. 5 came to a standstill for about an hour.

The animal damaged houses situated close to the state highway. Panic broke out among the local residents. Vehicles remained stranded for nearly one hour as the animal didn't budge from the road.

Local residents informed the matter to the district forest department officials who rushed to the spot.

They had a tough time to drive the wild tusker back into the forest. They applied various tricks on the animal but the elephant didn't move from the road for quite sometimes.

After an hour, the forest department officials successfully drove the animal into the Kalamani forest.

Local residents and the vehicle drivers breathed a sigh of relief after the animal was driven out.

The forest department officials are conducting a probe to find out how the elephant strayed into the areas of human habitation.

Forest department officials said the elephant got puzzled after seeing so many vehicles. But it did not attacked any vehicles which were plying through the area.

There was, however, no report of any injury in the incident. People went berserk after they spotted the wild animal gazing on the road. Some took out their mobile phones and captured photograph of the animal, while a few others tried to click selfies with the animal on the background.

Due to the commotion, forest department officials and police had to face difficulties to bring the situation under control. The forest department officials suspect that the elephant was separated from its herd.

It may be mentioned here that in the last one year a herd of 30 elephants caused huge damages in the adjoining areas here.

The people of Jhargram have faced adverse consequences due to various man-animal conflicts.

The forest department officials have started a detailed probe into the incident.

The district administration in Bankura decided to deploy teams comprising forest officers and villagers to drive elephants out from polling booths.

According to the forest department at least 40 jumbos roam at the elephant corridor that passes through the Bankura district and pose threats to voters and polling personnel.

Officials of the districts such as West Midnapore and Jhargram are also identifying polling booths along the elephant corridor. They are also putting up adequate arrangements to stop the jumbo menace in these areas.

On March 11, a 55-year-old woman, Sandhya Ghosh, was killed by an elephant at Saharjora village in Bankura's Borjora.