Tuskers continue to roam in UP, kill another person

The two wild elephants, wandering from one spot to another since the past 20 days, have reached Uttar Pradesh's district, where it attacked and killed another person.

The incident took place in Mirzapur village, 15 km from Rampur city, on Monday night.

The jumbos attacked Raju Yadav, who was returning home from work on his bicycle. According to villagers, Raju was not aware of the presence of the wild elephants in the village. 

He unwittingly came close to them on the road near his house and was trampled and killed.

Two weeks ado, the wild tuskers killed a person identified as Baijnath in Bilaspur tehsil and injured two others.

Forest officials said that they were now trying to divert the elephants towards Bahedi in Bareilly district.

Forest officials have also sought two more cow elephants from the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve for push-and-pull process to lure the tuskers away from human habitation to the forests.

The two adult bull elephants moved out of Bareilly's Mandanpur village to reach Rathonda village in Rampur on Saturday. In the night, they covered another 10 km to arrive at Mirzapur village on Sunday.

Divisional Forest Officer, Rampur, A.K. Kashyap said: "We are taking all necessary precautionary measures to divert them in case they do so. We have made arrangements for lighting a fire and keeping husk with chilli powder and firecrackers in hand."

Forest officials have installed loudspeakers on their vehicles and were going around all villages situated within 10-km radius of Peepal Sana, telling villagers keep away from their fields for safety. Similar announcements were also made from mosques on Monday.

P.P. Singh, Chief Conservator of Forests, Jhansi, and in-charge of elephant rescue operation, said: "Though the tuskers diverted towards a westward direction, they are still in our range. There is nothing to panic. Due to weekly markets held at the villages in Rampur on Saturday, we could not conduct the push-and-pull process properly. 

"However, we will continue with our strategy to move the two bull elephants in the right direction. Though we are taking help of three cow elephants from Dudhwa in our rescue operation, we have sought two more for assistance. We are expecting the two cow elephants to arrive by Monday."

The push-and-pull process involves lighting a fire at dusk behind the tuskers to scare them while the cow elephants from Dudhwa move about 400 metres ahead to attract the tuskers and guide them to safety.

Officials have planned to take them to either Corbett National Park or Nepal.

The two jumbos from Nepal that entered the agricultural belt of Pilibhit's Amaria block on June 24, have claimed four lives and injured three people. 

They are attracting a lot of public attention as most people in the region have never seen a wild jumbo before. PAC personnel have been deployed to prevent crowds from getting close to the jumbos. IANS