An elephant caused panic in Santiniketan (top) on Wednesday morning after it trampled an elderly lady to death and entered a deer park near the Visva-Bharati campus in Birbhum.

After chasing the animal for nearly seven hours, forest guards managed to drive it away to the Illambazar forest, about 6km from the Visva-Bharati campus.

The elephant was spotted in the deer park at 11.30am, after which forest guards and police started making announcements over loudspeakers warning university students and Santiniketan residents that it would be unsafe to step out of classrooms, hostels and homes.

“The elephant had already killed an 80-year-old lady in Labhpur, 20km from Santiniketan, this morning,” a forest official said.

According to forest guards, the jumbo had walked over 100km from Bankura, through Labhpur, Bolpur and the Illambazar forest to reach Santiniketan.

The forest officials said the animal trampled the fencing of a farm (below) in Santiniketan. “As soon as we saw the elephant breaking into my farm, we called the forest department,” said Birendra Kumar Roy, the owner of the farm.

In the evening, forest officials entered the deer park with firecrackers, torches, whistles and tin cans to scare the animal away. “We drove the elephant away from Santiniketan tonight around 7pm,” said a forest official.

Pictures by Indrajit Roy