‘The animal was in pain’: Jharkhand villagers look after elephant that destroyed their houses

The elephant, which is struggling to walk due to acute pain in his front left leg, has taken shelter in a hillock.

A 12-year-old wild elephant that trampled a youth a few days ago in Jharkhand, is being looked after by villagers and forest officials.

The local villagers have extended their services to help the elephant recover from the injury.(HT Photo)

The elephant had sustained injuries in the incident and is being served food mixed with vegetables.

The villagers came to rescue of the tusker forgetting the damage caused by it, forest officials said. The jumbo reportedly killed two people and damaged several houses and crops in Rahe, Silli and Angarha blocks in the past one month.

The elephant, which is struggling to walk due to acute pain in his front left leg, has taken shelter in a hillock between two villages - Hesadih and Rigrigram - under Silli block.

Even as veterinary doctor has prescribed the medicine, serving the medicine to the wild elephant is a big challenge for forest officials. The local villagers have extended their services to help the elephant recover from the injury. The villagers are providing pumpkins and bottle gourds in which medicine is infused and they are placed near a water body where the jumbo comes to quench his thirst every day.

“Around a week back, we noticed the elephant in nearby hillock. We found the elephant was in big pain and tears rolling out of its eyes. It was not able to walk properly. We informed the forest department and requested to rescue the elephant immediately. Otherwise, it will die in pain,” said Kalipada Mahto, a resident of Hesadih.

The veterinary doctor of Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park, also known as Birsa zoo, Dr Ajay Kumar was called for treatment of the elephant. “I was told that the elephant was suffering due to acute swelling, which might have caused due to injury, on his left leg. I went there around a week back but did not find the elephant. I prescribed few medicines including broad spectrum antibiotic and non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs along with proteolytic enzyme,” Kumar said.

The Angarha forest ranger RK Singh said, “Serving medicines to a wild elephant is a big challenge due to possible attack by it. Then, we came up with an idea to serve it through vegetables. We infused the medicines in pumpkins and bottle gourds and placed them near a water body. The elephant comes down every day from the hillock to quench his thirst and it also eats the vegetables.”

The vegetables are provided by the villagers. They also placed paddy to feed the elephant.

“We served medicine by this way for past three- four days. But, the elephant did not come down on Wednesday. We are concerned but nobody dares to go to the hillock, as four more wild elephants have come to the place on Tuesday night,” Singh said, adding, “we are now finding out other options.”

Jharkhand is one of the worst-affected states by man-elephant conflicts. As per the data available with the forest department, man-elephant conflicts claimed 650 lives between 2009-10 and 2018-19.