A wild elephant straying into the campus of the North Bengal University (NBU) early on Saturday kept foresters of Kurseong forest division busy throughout the day.
The varsity, spread over 330 acres, is located at Rajarammohanpur on the northwest outskirts of Siliguri.
Sources in the forest department said that they had come to know that a loner makna (male elephant without tusks) walked out of the Bagdogra forest on Friday evening.
While tracking its movement, foresters came to know that early on Saturday the elephant entered the sprawling NBU campus after crossing villages like Baunivita, Tarabari and Bharatbusty.
“It roamed near the varsity’s guest house and the Vidya Sagar Mancha and then went to the sal plantation on the campus, adjacent to the varsity’s football ground. It then stood there throughout the day,” said a forester.
At the time this report was filed at 7.20pm, the elephant was still standing there.
As it was Saturday, most departments of the varsity were closed and the campus had fewer people than on any weekday.
Even then, the NBU authorities issued a written order restricting movement inside the campus.
The authorities urged students, faculty, staff members and others living on or visiting the residential campus to stay indoors because of the elephant.
The order, however, did not dissuade many.
Many campus residents as well as outsiders tried to catch a glimpse of the elephant even as foresters and the police monitored its movement.
Later in the afternoon, as foresters planned to drive it back to the forest, public announcements were made across the Lower Bagdogra panchayat area so that people dwelling in areas like New Rangia and Baunivita would stay inside.
“When we start driving the elephant back to the forest, it will move through these areas. That is why residents have been put on alert,” said an official of the Kurseong forest division.
Foresters from Bagdogra, Tukuriajhar, Panighata and Bamanpokhri forest ranges and the wildlife squads of Bagdogra and Sukna have assembled on the campus.
At least 10 patrolling vans and an “Airavat”, a special van fitted with equipment to tranquillise elephants, have also reached the NBU to steer the animal back to the forest.
“Around 100 forest staffers, along with senior forest officials, vets as well as the policemen of Matigara police station are still trying making every effort to steer the elephant safely back to the Bengdubi forest of the Bagdogra forest range,” said a forester.