Rourkela: Forest department officers on Friday night drove back a rogue elephant that had triggered panic at Kinjrikela in Sundargarh district into the forests of neighbouring Chhattisgarh from where it had come

The elephant, which was limping, had wreaked havoc at Kinjrikela, 80km from here, for the past few days.

"This elephant was part of an 11-member herd that had come from Chhattisgarh. Eight of them had been pushed back, but three had stayed back after being separated from the herd. A few days back, two of them went away, but this lone female elephant stayed back. It was creating problems at Kinjrikela and nearby areas and triggered panic among residents of the range," said Sundargarh Divisional Forest Officer Arun Mishra.

The elephant appeared to have an injury in her right leg. "It was limping and angry. It had some kind of injury or ulcer on its right leg, but I have not seen the wounds," said Kinrikela villager Mohan Munda.

Sources said the elephant was in a foul mood because the villagers were throwing stones and other missiles at it as it was unable to run at usual speed. Following the request of the villagers, Mishra ordered for antibiotics to be given to the elephant by keeping it inside a ripe jackfruit.

Mishra said: "The elephant was not actually injured. It was limping because it was affected by a congenital defect in all probability. We took photographs of the animal and sent it to Indramani Nath, an elephant expert, and he confirmed this. He said the elephant had some kind of internal problems and was in pain. For that we served it with some pain killers and antibiotics through the jackfruit."

Initially, the elephant did not accept the fruit. "It is not easy to serve them something. For a long time it refused to eat the jackfruit. After trying for nearly a couple of hours, it finally accepted the medicine through jackfruit and after that looked and behaved better. We drove it back in the night into the Kinjrikela forest where it found her two friends," said Mishra.

The forest department kept watch on the movement of the animal after driving her back. Finally, all three moved towards the herd to Chhattisgarh.