The Hindu : Elephant overturns vehicle, 6 injured

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 02, 2003

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Elephant overturns vehicle, 6 injured

By Marcus Dam

Kolkata Dec. 1. A cow elephant, searching for its calf, overturned a Trekker carrying men on forest patrol in Mejia near West Bengal's Bankura forest during the weekend, injuring six persons.

One person has been admitted to the Bankura hospital with serious injuries.

The State's Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Udayan Dasgupta, told The Hindu that the incident occurred when forest personnel went there to look for the calf which had strayed from a herd of about 50 elephants.

The Bankura forest is a favourite haunt of elephants which travel nearly 100 km from their main habitat — the Dolma forest in adjoining Jharkhand — in search of paddy and water in West Bengal.

The journey, which takes the elephants through the dense woods of the neighbouring Midnapore district, is usually made in August and is over in two days. They have been using the route since 1987, but for the past three years have been heading deeper into Bankura district towards its northern fringes, plundering crop-lands when under threat from people.

There have also been reports from north Bengal of stray elephants attacking people in tea gardens. But unlike the southern part of the State, the route in the north passes through reserved forests, Mr. Dasgupta said.

According to a recent census, there are about 23 "resident" elephants in the forests of Purulia, Midnapore West and Bankura in south Bengal.

These, however, mostly move about in pairs and are pre-dominantly male having been driven out of their original herds over the years, Mr. Dasgupta said.

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Elephant overturns vehicle, 6 injured