Pair of wild elephants cause panic in Falakata; town paralysed for hours

Alipurduar: A pair of wild tuskers brought the town of Falakata to a standstill, forcing authorities to impose prohibitory orders and confine residents to their homes for nearly 10 hours. To ensure the safety of children, a closure was declared in 10 schools, including primary and secondary.

The elephants, which entered the town early Thursday morning, caused widespread panic, prompting the deployment of two trained (kumki) elephants, Champakli and Minakshi, from Jaldapara to drive the tuskers back to the forest on Thursday evening.

By 6 am on Thursday tension had gripped Falakata as forest workers struggled to control the animals, but by evening the situation was brought under control, with both tuskers being guided towards Kunjanagar, a locality on the outskirts of the town.

The Forest department remains optimistic that the elephants will soon enter the Jaldapara National Park.

Despite the elephants’ presence throughout the day, no major accidents were reported. However, damage was caused to various structures, including the divider along National Highway No-17; a concrete boundary wall of the local Girls High School; several shops and residential boundary walls.

At around 5 am, the elephants breached the wall of the Falakata Girls School and ventured through the town, crossing the main road and entering the garden in Subhaspally. Forest officials believe that the elephants entered the area shortly after midnight, and navigated through the wrong route as dawn broke. The elephants entered a jungle-like garden in the Subhaspally area around 10 am, where they were ultimately driven out by forest officials, who used crackers and kumki elephants to guide them out. The area was surrounded for safety, and local residents were repeatedly warned through miking. Section 163

(BNSS) was imposed.

Praveen Kaswan, DFO of Jaldapara National Park, praised the efforts of forest workers and local authorities, saying: “No accidents occurred. The situation was

managed professionally.

Thanks to the Alipurduar district police and administration for their support. We are successfully guiding the

elephants back to the forest.”