By IANS
Ranchi : Jharkhand forest department officials are seeking to execute a rampaging wild tusker, an official has said.
The 20-year-old elephant, called Laden, has killed 17 people in the past one year in Silli block of Ranchi district and neighbouring Purulia district in West Bengal.
“If Laden is not executed, more human beings could be killed by the tusker in the area. To save human beings the rampaging tusker must be executed,” a forest department official told IANS.
According to the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, the Chief Wildlife Warden can issue the execution order of an elephant in certain exceptional cases. Chief Wildlife Warden A.K. Singh will decide on the fate of the tusker.
The forest department officials have pointed out that Laden started behaving abnormally after it was separated from its herd a few years ago.
On Dec 17, Laden killed an old woman and her two and a half year old granddaughter in Silli block of Ranchi.
In several villages, people are now scared to move out after 4 p.m.
In the past, a tusker was put to death in Jharkhand after it killed 13 people.
According to a forest department estimate more than 400 people were killed in the last six years in human-elephant conflicts and at least 700 people were injured.
In the same period, at least 82 elephants have died due to electrocution, in train hits, or due to diseases.
According to the May 2007 census, there were 622 elephants in Jharkhand.