A stray tusker in a Jharkhand forest

Ranchi, March 31: The state forest department has approached its Bengal counterparts for ?specialised elephant chasers? to drive away a stray tusker that is believed to have killed six people in 20 days in Simdega district.

Jharkhand does not have specialised people to carry out such operations, said officials, and so they have to seek help from the neighbouring state.

The stray tusker was a part of a herd that had entered the Simdega district via Orissa forests on February 21, forest officials said. Soon, the mammal was creating panic among the residents of Thathaitangar and Jaldega blocks. The officials were forced to seek help from Bengal after the tusker killed a person in Merumdahar village on March 22.

Simdega district forest officer Mithilesh Singh said the team has arrived in the state and are searching for the pachyderm. ?Right now, we are unable to trace it. The team is searching for it. It could be a possibility that the elephant has gone back to the forest.?

But, he added, rumours about spotting the mammal was ?causing complications? for the department.

Wednesday night the officials were told that seven elephants were spotted in a river in Kolebira block. ?We rushed to the spot to find buffaloes there. Later were heard that elephants were creating a blockade on the Rourkela-Simdega Road. We rushed, again, but could not spot any tusker. These rumours are causing a lot of problem,? added Singh.

Ironically, the ?specialised elephant chasers are not all that specialised anyway,? said another forest official.

?They do not use any hi-tech gadgets to chase the elephants. The team approaches the tusker concerned and forms a U about 5 feet in front of it. Then the members use traditional torchs ? similar to the Olympic torch ? and scare the tusker to retreat. They also make loud noises by banging on tin cans and drums,? added the official.

There are a few villages in Bengal where the residents are experts in the job and Jharkhand government pays them whenever there is a elephant problem here, he added.

Jharkhand is not devoid of elephant chasers. But the people here are not trained. ?The team here uses motorbikes without silencers and fires to scare tuskers,? said another forest officer.