Elephant behind human deaths in MP's Bandhavgarh reserve captured; possibly in musth, says official
The Bandhavgarh reserve has drawn national attention following the unexplained deaths of ten elephants in about 72 hours.
Representative image
NEW DELHI: Forest officials in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday captured an elephant, believed to be in musth, in the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve and said the big mammal had killed two men and injured another the previous day.
Earlier, it was suspected that three elephants had caused the human deaths and injuries.
“After tracking footprints, we captured the elephant that has entered adulthood and is around 20 years old. The bull is not among the three remaining elephants of a herd that lost 10 pachyderms this week,” the reserve’s deputy director Prakash Verma told PTI.
He said residents of villages near the reserve had claimed that the three remaining jumbos from the herd were behind the attacks.
Also Read: They fell to the ground, shivered and died: Tiger reserve staff on 10 elephants dying in MP
“We tracked, monitored and studied the footprints before spotting the tusker and capturing it,” he said.
This bull elephant had earlier demonstrated aggressiveness by attacking some camps but had not charged at humans, he said.
“The behaviour of bull elephants changes when they enter adulthood and during musth (marked by heightened aggression due to increased testosterone levels),” said the official.
The elephant was tranquilised before capturing, he said.
The mammal was captured on the orders of Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) VKN Ambade after it was found to be a threat to humans, Verma said.
The elephant killed Ramratan Yadav (50) in Devra village, some 10 kilometres from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in MP’s Umaria district, when he went to answer nature’s call on Saturday, officials said.
After that, it killed Bhairav Kol (35) in Brahe village in the buffer zone of the protected forest and then injured Malu Sahu (32) in Banka just outside the reserve, the officials said.
The Bandhavgarh reserve has drawn national attention following the unexplained deaths of ten elephants in about 72 hours.
On October 29, four wild elephants were found dead in Sankhani and Bakeli under the Khalil range of the reserve, while four died on October 30 and two on October 31. The elephants may have died after consuming some toxic substance, as per officials. Several teams are probing the incidents.