Screenshots from the viral video of the tusker at Malbazar in North Bengal in February 2025.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
One man has been arrested by the police for allegedly provoking a wild tusker in Malbazar in North Bengal’s Jalpaiguri, after videos surfaced of a conflict between the elephant and locals on Sunday.
According to West Bengal’s Chief Wildlife Warden Debal Ray, the accused was arrested for allegedly provoking and attacking the elephant with a JCB crane.
“The driver has been arrested and the JCB has been seized,” Mr. Ray told The Hindu. He added that the elephant had been released into the wild.
Reportedly, the tusker from the Apalchand forest had ventured into the Damdim area of Malbazar while the JCB machine was engaged in digging the ground. In videos that went viral online, the tusker could be seen being chased by the JCB machine. It charged at it and at a watchtower-like concrete structure, after being aggravated by locals.
The arrest of the JCB driver followed a written complaint by wildlife activists at the Malbazar Police Station under multiple sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, against the alleged harassment of the tusker by the driver of the JCB and the locals who were present at the time.
“The elephant was grievously injured after the provocation and poking. The elephant was calm before the locals, including the JCB driver, started provoking and chasing it. It is a wild animal, so naturally, it charged against the JCB and the concrete structure,” Swarup Mitra, secretary of the Mountain Trekkers Foundation and one of the complainants, said.
He added that one of the people present there had also pulled the elephant’s tail, further agitating it.
Along with wildlife activist Tania Haque, Mr. Mitra filed a complaint on February 2 at the Malbazar Police Station and Gorumara Range Office against the JCB driver and others, under multiple offences including the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. “The locals involved in provoking the tusker are currently also being identified,” he said.
According to Chief Wildlife Warden Debal Ray, North Bengal is home to nearly 680 elephants currently.
Human-elephant conflict has been a long-standing issue in the forests of West Bengal, incurring a large number of human deaths. According to data shared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in July 2024, West Bengal reported 99 human deaths from human-elephant conflict in 2023-24, one of the highest in the country alongside Odisha and Jharkhand.
However, based on Ministry data from 2022-2023, West Bengal recorded a lesser number of elephant deaths due to human-induced factors like poaching, electrocution, poisoning and train accidents, compared to other States. In 2023, a total of seven elephants in West Bengal had lost their lives due to these factors.
Published – February 05, 2025 04:50 pm IST