Jharkhand: Wild elephant enters Ranchi, triggering panic among locals

A wild elephant strayed into Ranchi’s Hawai Nagar area on Friday morning, causing panic among residents. Forest officials deployed a team to drive it back safely. Authorities heightened safety measures amid rising concerns over man-elephant conflict fatalities in Jharkhand

Ranchi: A wild elephant entered Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi on Friday morning, triggering panic among locals, a forest official said. The jumbo was moving around the Hawai Nagar area, and a forest team has been deployed to drive out the animal from the city, he said.

“The elephant perhaps deviated from its route and entered the city. Since it is school time for children, we are following all safety measures,” Ranchi Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Srikant Verma told PTI.

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He said elephants often come to the Dhurwa dam from the Halhu forest area.

The elephant was seen near the National Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technology around 5 am, another official said.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had recently expressed concerns over the rising number of casualties due to man-elephant conflicts in the state and directed officials to develop a mechanism to ensure that no human death occurs due to attacks by the animal.

Around 27 people died due to elephant attacks in several districts, including Ramgarh, Bokaro, Hazaribag, Chaibasa, Jamshedpur, Lohardaga, Gumla and Dumka, in the past few months, which was a “matter of serious concern”, he had said.