Rogue elephant moves near borders of Maharashtra, Telangana

Locals of bordering villages in Bejjur, Chintalamanepalli and Penchikalpet mandals feared that it might return to Telangana in search of water and food as it did on April 3 and 4.

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: The problematic lone male elephant named ME3 was noticed to be moving on the borders of Maharashtra and Telangana states, triggering panic among locals. It had trampled two farmers to death in a gap of two days in Kaghaznagar forest division in April first week.

“It is moving in the forests of Lakhmendra hills in Surendra nagar forest range of Maharashtra,” Sagnik Sengupta, founder of Stripes and Green Earth Foundation, a Kolkata-based NGO working with Maharashtra forest department in monitoring a herd of 23 pachyderms told’ Telangana Today.

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He said that the direction of the movement of the jumbo could not be predicted. Incidentally, the present spot of the tusker is around 20 kilometers away from Bejjur mandal in Telangana.

Locals of bordering villages in Bejjur, Chintalamanepalli and Penchikalpet mandals feared that it might return to Telangana in search of water and food as it did on April 3 and 4.

They requested the forest officials to take steps to tackle the rogue elephant and to prevent further human loss.

The elephant drifted towards Telangana by crossing Pranahita river after getting separated from its herd in Maharashtra trampled Alluri Shankar (50) at Burepalli village before killing Karu Posham (65) at Kondapalli village in two days, panicking locals.

The district saw the menace for the first time in recent history. The lone elephant, however, crossed the river at Jilleda village and entered Maharashtra on April 6.