Jumbos head for Bengal

Jamshedpur: Two elephant herds from Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary have started ambling towards Bengal.

The herds, comprising about a dozen elephants in each, are anchored at Digha and Chekam jungles of Ghatshila, around 30km from Dalma and 25km from the Bengal border.

Jamshedpur divisional forest officer Saba Alam Ansari said, "Generally, the elephants from Dalma migrate to Bengal in August-September and return to their habitat in February-March. But there has been a deviation in their behaviour as around 24 elephants have started moving towards Bengal."

The DFO said the reason for their untimely movement was intermittent rain causing vegetation to grow along the migratory corridor connecting Dalma to West Midnapore and Bankura jungles in Bengal.

"There are over two dozen check-dams in the 55km-long elephant corridor between Dalma and West Midnapore and Bankura. And when there's vegetation around, elephants come out of Dalma," said the senior forest officer.

Interestingly, two more herds of elephants from Bengal are currently stationed at Pochakholi and Rajabasa jungles at Chakulia block in Ghatshila sub-division.

Chakulia forest range officer Gorakh Ram said he had never seen movement of elephants in such large numbers during mid-summer.

"Two herds comprising 11 and 13 elephants in each are anchored in Pochakoli and Rajabasa jungles which fall under my range. These elephants are from Bengal and they are here since the past two days," said Ram.



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