Two wild elephants on a rampage kill forest guard in Bareilly village

BAREILLY: Two wild elephants went on a rampage again and killed a forest guard in Tigri village under Baheri sub-division of Bareilly district on Wednesday. The incident took place in the presence of forest teams and villagers when the experts were trying to distract the jumbos and move them towards the forest area. This is the fifth death caused by these two adult elephants in the last seven days in Bareilly, Rampur and Rudrapur areas of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Uttarakhand.
The tuskers - separated from their herd - have also injured two persons in Rampur and Rudrapur in the past few days. They have most likely strayed from Nepal, officials said.
The two jumbos were first spotted in the agriculture belt of Amaria of Pilibhit on June 24. Since then, efforts are on to move them back to the forest area. After straying out and moving towards Bareilly’s Lakhimpur village in Baheri sub-division, the pachyderms have been in and around Baheri, Rampur’s Bilaspur and Rudrapur.
The elephants reached Tigri village and killed forest guard Hemant Kumar. Officials said 36-year-old Kumar along with three other foresters went near the elephants when one of the jumbos attacked Kumar. While others managed to escape. The elephant first struck Kumar with a branch of a tree and then lifted him with its trunk and threw him on the ground.
Station officer, Sheeshgarh police station, Shyam Singh Yadav, said, “The elephants let go of Kumar after I fired in the air. He was admitted to a private medical college where he succumbed to his injuries. Besides, announcements were being made in Sheeshgarh mosques to alert villagers to remain indoors.”
The elephants were currently in Tigra village’s mango orchard till the filing of this report. Bareilly divisional forest officer (DFO) Bharat Lal said, “We tried to scare off the elephants but they only moved about a radius of 50 metres. The elephants were travelling mainly during the night. To distract the jumbos from moving towards human settlements, we have billowed smoke with chilli powder.”
When these two jumbos were first spotted in Pilibhit, it was suspected that they had come from Uttarakhand’s Terai East Forest Division. But, forest officials are now claiming that they actually strayed from Nepal. “The jumbos will have to go back to Nepal via Uttarakhand’s Chorgalia forest patch and Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. Elephants usually can find its way back by smelling its dung and urine,” added Lal.
Asked on why the elephants are not being tranquilised, Rampur DFO AK Kashyap told TOI, “It is difficult to tranquilise and transport elephants from their current location. It can be done when they are close to forest area.” Kashyap added, “In most of the deaths, humans had provoked the elephants. Apart from teams of DFOs of Bareilly and Rampur, teams from Lucknow and wildlife SOS have also reached the area.”