|
Jalpaiguri, Feb. 4: A rhino strayed into a Premganj village close to Jalpaiguri town this morning and injured a person.
The rhino was spotted by local people around 7.30am on the riverbank of the Teesta, about 15km from here.
A peanut farmer, Mohammad Monglu, 50, was attacked by the animal and he has suffered injuries in his right hand and leg. He has been admitted to the district hospital here.
Local people said Monglu had taken two of his cows, near the riverbank where he grows peanuts.
According to villager Mohammad Alauddin, the people began to panic soon after Monglu was attacked. “Some of them set fire to the grass growing on the land near the riverbank. Suddenly, the rhino came out and began running around creating panic among us and we retreated to a safe distance. When the forest guards from Gorumara arrived around 2pm we requested them to get rid of the animal,” he said.
According to a forest department source, the rhino could have been the one that had strayed into the Baikunthapur forest division from Gorumara in 2010.
Baikunthapur forest is about 8km from Premganj. Gorumara National Park is about 12km in the opposite direction, the source said.
“We have brought in kunkis to drive the animal back into the forest,” said Sumita Ghatak, the divisional forest officer of wildlife II.
|
