Agartala, Aug. 22: The search began a little after 8 this morning when BFS jawans along North Tripura’s border with Bangladesh spotted a huge hole in the barbed wire fence — a hole large enough for, well, an elephant to pass through.

It must have taken days of very systematic “cutting” to create the gaping hole.

Footprints in the soft mud near the fence, halfway between Jamtail and Jibontilla border outposts, west of Kailasahar subdivisional town, proved beyond doubt that the “contraband” package that had passed through border was indeed an elephant.

What followed was a dramatic pursuit that ended with one of the smugglers falling to his death with bullet injuries into a 450-foot gorge.

For the first few hours after spotting the hole, BSF jawans spread into nearby villagers asking for information about an elephant.

They soon learnt that three persons were seen leading an elephant towards Tailenbari jungle on the left of Kailasahar-Kumarghat Road, said superintendent of police (north) Uttam Mazumder.

Late in the afternoon, the jawans closed in on the smugglers, who attacked them with sharp weapons.

The jawans shot one of them in the leg, while his two companions fled.

Dragging his bullet-riddled legs, the injured smuggler also tried to flee, but slipped and fell into the gorge.

The smuggled elephant, rescued by jawans of BSF’s 24 battalion, is now being cared for by the forest department.

“This is the first time an elephant has been smuggled into the state. It is being looked after by the forest department and we are looking for the other two smugglers,” Mazumder said.

The smugglers might have planned to take the elephant to Assam and sell it there, he said.

BSF sources here later said if Bangladesh Rifles sought a flag meeting in Kailasahar, they were willing to participate and hand over the elephant to the owner.