Tuskers run rampant in Lalgarh's Madhupur forest

Kolkata: A herd of elephants entered Madhupur forest in Lalgarh causing damages to the adjoining villages since Saturday night.

This has happened at a time when the forest department officials have placed two cage-traps with baits in the same forest to capture the tiger which was caught

in the hidden cameras on last Friday morning.

The herd of elephants has carried out damages in various places including Lalgarh Bazar and bus stand areas. People have become scared and many of them started running helter skelter after seeing the elephants.

One of the elephants entered a field and destroyed crops.

On the other hand, the forest department officials are yet to trace the tiger. Despite elaborate arrangements, they have failed to capture the tiger on Sunday.

The officials believe that the tiger might have gone to some other part of the forest after sensing the presence of the elephants' herd.

The forest department officials are also investigating if the tiger

had received any injuries as it is believed to have come from

Odisha's Shimlipal.

Hidden cameras inside the forest - a 50 sqkm patch in Jhargram district captured the full-grown male at 4.28 am on Friday.

Five pairs of cameras were put up on tree trunks and other strategic locations inside the core forest area.

Another hidden camera caught the photographs of the tiger at 6.15 am. The sighting of the tiger in the area is a rare incident, the forest official maintained.

The incident occurred after some villagers saw pug marks and alerted the local administration.

Wildlife experts examined the marks and the pictures were sent to the city

for examination.

Initially, the forest department officials suspected it to be a hyena or a leopard but it was found to be a full grown tiger.