Elephant Wreaks Terror In India's Northeast

FLORA AND FAUNA

File photo of an asiatic elephant.

by Staff Writers
Guwahati (AFP) Dec 15, 2006
A rogue male elephant nicknamed "Laden" has killed 14 people in northeastern India in the last year and rangers have been ordered to shoot it dead by New Year's Eve, a state warden said Friday. But the creature is proving hard to capture. "We've hired a licensed hunter to kill the rogue elephant but so far Laden has remained elusive," state wildlife warden Chandan Bora told AFP on Friday.

"The hunter, accompanied by about five rangers, is still in the jungles trying to hunt down Laden."

In July, the elephant was declared a "rogue", a male that has become violent and isolated from its herd, after the toll from its attacks reached a dozen.

The giant pachyderm was dubbed "Laden" -- after the terrorist Osama bin Laden -- by villagers in the eastern district of Sonitpur, 230 kilometres (142 miles) from Assam's main city Guwahati, where it has attacked.

"Two days back, Laden killed a woman close to a reserved forest area. The animal is very clever and managed to evade the hunter," said the warden, who added the animal has killed 14 people in total.

Deadly turf wars between humans and hungry elephants in the northeast have reached alarming proportions with the pachyderms moving out of the jungles in search of food and people encroaching upon animal corridors.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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