A spate of wild elephant attacks in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district has claimed 16 lives within a week, including members of two families, triggering panic across forest-fringe villages and prompting emergency response measures by the forest department.
On Tuesday night, an elephant killed six people, including four members of the same family, in Noamundi. Earlier, on Monday night, a tusker killed three members of the same family in Goelkera.
A forest department official said the entire area under the Jeteya police station in the Noamundi block was under attack by a wild elephant.
“Six villagers were killed in separate incidents across different villages, while four others sustained serious injuries. In Bawadia village, an elephant killed four members of a family of six who were sleeping in a straw-thatched house near a threshing floor. Those killed were a couple and their two children. One family member managed to escape, while another had his leg crushed by the elephant,” the official said.
The official said two people died in two other villages in the same block. “A man was killed in an elephant attack in Badapaseya village, while another was killed in Lampaisai village,” he said, adding that, in all likelihood, one elephant is responsible for these attacks.
{{/usCountry}}The official said two people died in two other villages in the same block. “A man was killed in an elephant attack in Badapaseya village, while another was killed in Lampaisai village,” he said, adding that, in all likelihood, one elephant is responsible for these attacks.
{{/usCountry}}Noamundi Range Forest Officer (RFO) Jitendra Singh said an alert has been issued in the area due to elephant movement. “Specially trained teams from West Bengal and Gujarat have been called in to capture the tusker. In addition, Quick Response Teams (QRTs) from all forest divisions in the district have been deployed, and efforts are underway to drive the elephant back into the dense forests,” the official said.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of the Chaibasa division, Aditya Narayan, said, “Seven people have been killed in the Kolhan division, and nine have been killed in the Chaibasa division in the past week. Both divisions come under the West Singhbhum district.”
He said a public notice has been issued to educate people about elephant attacks, which includes not blocking the elephant’s path and maintaining a safe distance of 100 metres. He also advised people not to chase the elephant or try to drive it away.
“Do not build threshing floors in areas adjacent to the forest. Do not sleep on threshing floors at night. There is a provision for the department to pay appropriate compensation if elephants eat or damage stored grains kept in fields, threshing floors or houses,” the notice read. It also advised people not to store locally brewed Mahua liquor at home, as its smell can attract elephants.
However, the state government’s data from the last five years on deaths due to elephant attacks does not show any rise. In fact, human deaths in 2023–24 stood at 87, compared to 133 in 2021–22, which was the highest in the past five years. Notably, many human habitations have come up along traditional elephant corridors in the Kolhan region of Jharkhand, which lies along an established elephant corridor between Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha.
A wildlife biologist from Jharkhand, D. S. Srivastava, said the situation is the result of elephant mismanagement.
“Elephants are very intelligent animals. Elephant societies are matriarchal, and their family bonding is strong but small in size. They move in herds and protect each other. If any individual gets separated, he or she tries to reunite with the group. Until they reunite, they keep searching for each other, and during this process such incidents take place. All this is due to elephant mismanagement. Since the creation of Jharkhand, 1,400 people have been killed in human–elephant conflict, but so far no elephant management plan has been chalked out,” Srivastava said.