Tura, March 14: Unverified stories of wild elephants entering some localities of Tura town have led to panic amongst a section of the population leading to forest fires being ignited to scare the pachyderms away.
Stories of elephants entering the Danakgre and Ballonggre areas- around ICFAI University and even close to the residence of the chief minister turned out to be false.
Wildlife DFO Rupankar Marak told this scribe that the stories escalated due to an incident near Abong Noga college on Wednesday when four wild elephants tried to cross to the otherside.
The elephants had moved from the Doldegre area where the Tura medical college site is located and was attempting to move towards Wakagre.
“Our Wildlife teams have managed to push them back towards the back of Nehru park. Another elephant that got separated from the herd was spotted at Danak Chiring stream side, but our teams are already on the ground monitoring the situation. There is no need to panic,” assured the DFO.
The elephants who have been using these routes for migration since ancient times are facing obstacles as human inhabitation expands to their areas leading to man and beast conflict.
Meanwhile, Wildlife department has issued a series of Do’s and Dont’s to the public in case they come across a wild elephant.
These rules include waiting at a safe distance to allow the creature to cross the road and not to make loud noises and frighten them which can lead the animal into a state of panic leading to a possible attack.
