Jumbo task in tiger hunt

A herd of more than 20 elephants went on the rampage in the forests near Lalgarh, destroying two of the hidden cameras that had photographed a tiger in the area on Friday.

Six cameras remain but none is safe with the elephants around. The elephants that entered Jhargram around 48 hours ago could scare the tiger and drive it away to another forest, wildlife officials said.

The forest department laid two traps with live bait for the tiger on Sunday but now capturing the animal seems a daunting task.

"Capturing a tiger is in itself a tough job. But we had zeroed in on a broad location. The elephants have made things even more challenging. We might have to expand the area of operation," said Ravikant Sinha, the chief wildlife warden of Bengal.

Two of the elephants, one of them a tusker, were separated from the herd and ran amok in nearby villages and Lalgarh town.

"The elephants uprooted several trees and trampled over small bushes and twigs. The cameras were placed inside tree trunks and other hidden spots," said Rabindranath Saha, the divisional forest officer of Midnapore. "They destroyed potato farms and crushed two-wheelers. The walls of a few buildings were also damaged."

Forest officials and villagers managed to drive the elephants back into the forest by evening.

Elephants from Jharkhand's Dalma region often enter Jhargram but the presence of the tiger in the jungle has complicated things this time.

No fresh pug marks were spotted in Melkhedia jungle on Sunday, prompting some officials to suspect that the predator may have moved to Kamrangi forest, less than 5km from Lalgarh. "Kamrangi forest is covered with layers of dried sal leaves. It will be difficult to trace pug marks there," said Saha.

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