Siliguri, June 20: Foresters of Darjeeling district are trying hard to keep elephants confined to the jungles of Naxalbari block and prevent them from straying into Nepal.

The electrocution of a female calf on the Mechi bed near the Indo-Nepal border on Wednesday night and alleged attack by villagers from the neighbouring country, which had injured another animal, have prompted the foresters to chalk out a “strategy”.

“We took the help of Surya and Shilabati, two trained elephants of Gorumara National Park to guide the herd, comprising around 80 pachyderms including calves, towards Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and prevent them from entering Nepal where their life is at risk,” said Kanchan Banerjee, the range officer of Sukna Wildlife Squad, today.

According to Banerjee, the elephants tread towards Lohagarh from Kalabari forests of Naxalbari, move to Nepaniabusti and Bamanpokhri before reaching the Mahananda sanctuary. All these places are located along the elephant corridor stretching from Mechi on one side and Sankosh on the Bengal-Assam border on the other, covering the Dooars and the reserve forests.

“The strategy worked and we managed to steer the herd to Lohagarh,” Banerjee said. “The elephants, however, returned to Kalabari again, and seem to be adamant to enter Nepal which is their usual routine. We are constantly monitoring their movement and trying to prevent them (from entering Nepal.)”

Villages in eastern Nepal’s Jhapa district have become vulnerable areas for wild elephants for the past few years. With the pachyderms straying into villages, the residents, apprehensive of depredation, are attacking and killing the animals. On July 11 last year, residents of Bamandangi had shot an elephant dead and injured two others with bullets. The animals managed to return but died in Naxalbari forests.

The foresters, however, are hopeful that the situation in Nepal will change. “We are in touch with the divisional forest officer and other foresters of Jhapa. They have informed us that the Nepal government has sanctioned Rs 7-8 lakh for low voltage power fencing to thwart elephants’ entry. In case the project is implemented, we expect the situation will improve,” one of them said.

Representatives of wildlife NGOs in India and Nepal, who had been vocal on elephants getting killed and injured by the villagers on the border, insist on informal talks and campaigning in the rural areas of the neighbouring country.

“We have started campaigning in some villages to stop attack on elephants,” a member of Biodiversity Conservation Society, an NGO of Nepal, said over the phone from Jhapa.