A portion of the wall brought down by the tusker. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Kalchini (Jalpaiguri), July 4: A tusker today walked around 4km from a forest to Kalchini town and smashed the wall around the local police station.

Seeing the jumbo approach, the men in khaki had slammed its iron gates shut.

The animal, however, knew its way in. One push and the gate flung open and the wall holding it fell.

The policemen watched the action from a safe distance as the elephant made its way towards the station and, then, suddenly realised it was not such a hot hangout after all. It left the premises after smashing another portion of the wall.

A forest department team arrived in around 20 minutes and burst crackers and fired blanks to scare the elephant away towards the Nimati forest through the adjoining tea gardens.

A.P. Singh, a deputy field director of the Buxa tiger reserve, said: “It took the forest team almost an hour to take the tusker back to the forest.”

The elephant had strayed from the tiger reserve.

Sudhir Lama, who runs a shop in Kalchini, 35km from Alipurduar town, said shops had downed their shutters and over 500 people had gathered to see the tusker in Kargil Chowk, a busy intersection.

“Some people offered the animal flowers while others gave it fruits. Children tried go near it, but the elderly prevented them. Luckily, it did not cause any damage.”