Residents of Jalpaiguri town were kept on their toes throughout Monday night after a calf, which had been rescued from a pit inside the Karala Valley Tea Garden on the outskirts of the town, strayed into the city instead of returning to the forest.
After nearly eight hours, the state forest department and police finally tranquillised the elephant and safely relocated it to the Baikunthapur forest early on Tuesday morning.
Three elephants entered the Karala Valley garden on Monday morning, and one of them, a calf, fell into a pit. Around noon, foresters widened the pit with an earth mover and the jumbo was able to move out.
The disoriented animal, however, did not rejoin the other two elephants who were at a distance. It wandered into the neighbouring Danguajhar tea estate instead.
The other two returned to the Bodaganj forest. By evening, the calf had reached Netajinagar, near the Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, through the Paschim line area of the tea estate. There, it damaged the house of a resident, Jiten Roy.
It then walked onto NH27, crossed the highway and entered a patch of forest near Ananda Chandra College around 8.30pm.
It continued to roam through the ABPC ground, the college premises, the municipal crematorium, and the TB Hospital area. Throughout the night, foresters, police personnel and hundreds of curious onlookers followed it.
Around 3.30am, the elephant crossed the Karala river and took shelter in another patch of forest near the Baikunthapur Palace.
Unable to steer it out of the town, foresters decided to tranquillise it before daybreak.
“We were apprehensive that it would venture further into the town in daylight. That is why it was darted near the palace,” said Dipen Tamang, the additional divisional forest officer of Baikunthapur forest division.
After darting the elephant, foresters brought in a hydra machine and lifted the animal out of the area.
“It was taken away and later released into the Baikunthapur forest after treatment. It had high energy levels since it is a sub-adult, which made our job more challenging,” Tamang added.
Sunu Ramdas, a resident of TB Hospital Para, said the entire neighbourhood spent a sleepless night, fearing the animal might sneak into their homes.
“We did not sleep throughout the night and kept a watch on the roads. Only after we learned that it had been tranquillised, we went to bed,” said Pabitra Barman of Collegepara.
This incident reminded the locals of November 2021, when two elephants had caused extensive damage in parts of the town, including the Ananda Chandra College, Pabitranagar Colony and TB Hospital Para.
The state forest department’s wildlife squad were able to steer the animals back into the forest after hours.