By IANS
Ranchi : The Jharkhand government has launched a hunt for a wild tusker, christened ‘Laden’, which has killed 19 people around Ranchi in the past few months, the latest being a two-and-half-year-old girl and her grandmother.
On Dec 17, the marauding tusker killed the girl and her grandmother in Silli, around 70 from here.
Fear of the tusker runs so deep that villagers have stopped venturing out of their homes after noon. The tusker has damaged standing crops, mud houses and trampled people to death.
“The tusker is very aggressive. We are trying to keep a close watch on him,” said Paritosh Uppadhayay, divisional forest officer of Ranchi.
“He is more dangerous than Bin Laden who still continues to terrorise America,” said Janak Mahto, a villager.
Umapad Mahto, another villager, said, “There is a general perception that tuskers do not harm children. But Laden has killed a two-and-half-year-old girl. He is a demon.”
Local reports said Laden has wreaked havoc in Purulia district of West Bengal, which borders Silli.
Forest officials said nearly half a dozen people have been trampled to death in Purulia by the tusker.
Forest department sources said around 400 people have died of elephant attacks and more than 700 injured in the last six years in the state. Around 10 elephants have fallen prey to poaching.
In Jharkhand, the elephant population has declined to 622 from 772, according to the current census conducted in May this year.