Two elephants shifted to Bengdubi to search for injured elephant

DARJEELING - To capture an injured elephant running wild in the Bengdubi Forest Range of West Bengal two captive elephants have been shifted to the area to help forest officers trace the animal.

Army personnel inside the Bengdubi range had spotted the injured elephant on Tuesday. But a subsequent search by forest officials of the Darjeeling Wildlife Division- I and Kerseong Wildlife subdivision yielded no results, prompting the Forest Department to engage captive elephants to trace the injured elephant.

The injury is said to be in the left leg of the elephant, as he was seen limping and unable to move around freely.

“First, we will examine the injury and then only we’ll get to know what has happened, and how it has happened. We just know that the elephant has an injury in the left leg. We got to know that the animal is injured by the way he was walking,” said Narayan Chandra Rai, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Kerseong division, West Bengal.

The forest officials said the injured elephant was sighted later, but it ran away whenever it saw the captive elephants. They added that locating the animal has become a problem.

“We went in search of the wild tusker with the help of the two captive elephants. We found the wild tusker but as we went near him, he ran away,” said Dinobondhu Barman, mahout of a captive elephant.

All necessary arrangements have been made for the medication and treatment by the forest department and veterinary surgeons are also on standby for immediate treatment of the injured elephant, as soon as it is captured. by Tarak Sarkar(ANI)