Cooch Behar, Oct. 13: A pair of bison wreaked havoc in Ghoksadanga today, killing two women and injuring five persons, including a range officer and a policeman, before one of the animals was darted and it died.

Villagers, who spent the entire morning chasing the two animals, said the bison were first spotted around 5am in Mechbil, 8km from the Bengdaki beat of the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary on the border of the Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts.

Half-an-hour later, one of the animals, a female, entered Dwarikamari village, 10km from Bengdaki, and gored to death Chhaya Adhikary, 45, and Haridasi Mondol, 65. Chhoton Das, a resident of adjoining Lafamari, said the bison then entered his village, chased by a mob from Dwarikamari.

Chhaya’s brother Nikhil Das said the two women were caught unawares. “Hearing a commotion, they had come out of their houses and suddenly they were attacked by the bison whose horns ripped their bellies apart,” Nikhil said.

Three others, Durbar Naba Das, Babu Das and Jamuna Sarkar, were injured. They were first admitted to MJN Hospital in Cooch Behar. Later they were taken to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri.

At the time the female bison was wreaking havoc, the male had taken shelter in a primary school in Dwarikamari after injuring a cow and killing its calf and damaging houses on its path.

Around 11.30am, the bison suddenly charged and injured Gopal Chakrabarty, a sub-inspector of the Ghoksadanga police station and then badly gored Smarajit Sarkar, the range officer of Mathabhanga. The ranger had come to drive away the animals into the forest.

Manindra Biswas, conservator of forests, north Bengal, said two kunki elephants were pressed into service from the Buxa Tiger Reserve, about 25km from the spot where the animals went on the rampage, to drive away the female bison. By 2pm, it had retreated into Jaldapara, where last week suspected poachers from Assam had shot to death a rhino.

“The female bison was chased away by the elephant back to Bengdaki. However, the male bison, that had been darted at 5pm near the school, died while being transported in a truck to the forest,” Biswas said. He added that the range officer had been admitted to a private nursing home in Cooch Behar and doctors attending on him have said his condition was serious.

Forest minister Ananta Roy, who hails from Cooch Behar district, has announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each for the next of kin of the two dead women. “The incident is very unfortunate and we will bear the cost of treatment of the injured and also provide compensation for damage to property,” Roy said.