Rogue elephant kills nearly two dozen people in 10-day rampage through eastern India
Nearly two dozen people were killed and 15 were injured by a large wild bull elephant that went on a 10-day rampage through several towns in eastern India, terrorizing locals who reportedly climbed trees and slept on rooftops to stay out of its reach.
The single-tusked male struck first on New Year’s Day when it killed a 35-year-old man in the village of Bandijhari in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district.
Four days later, the animal killed five members of the same family in the nearby town of Sowan. The next day, it killed five more people in Babaria, including a married couple and their two children, the Times of India reported.
The elephant moved mostly at night and covered as much as 25 miles a day, thwarting repeated attempts to tranquilize it, according to forest officials.
The animal is believed to be in a state of musth — a natural but dangerous hormonal condition in male elephants marked by a surge in testosterone that can last weeks or even months.
During musth, bulls become extremely aggressive, restless and unpredictable, often roaming long distances and attacking without warning.
In the hardest-hit villages, nightfall brought panic, with residents refusing to sleep indoors and instead perching on rooftops or in trees, keeping watch for the sound of breaking walls or footsteps as the elephant roamed the forest edge.
More than 300 forest and wildlife personnel have been deployed in a massive search operation involving tracking teams, tranquilizer units and drones.
Local authorities say the elephant has yet to be captured as it continues to evade teams by moving swiftly through dense forest and slipping across remote villages under cover of darkness.
Animal control personnel made multiple attempts to tranquilize the elephant using dart guns, but each effort failed as the giant became increasingly agitated — forcing teams to repeatedly abort operations over fears it could charge crowds gathered near villages.
As forests shrink and development spreads, elephants are increasingly forced into human settlements — a trend that has fueled a deadly rise in human-elephant encounters across India.
About 500 people are killed by elephants in India each year, according to government data.
Between 2020 and 2024, the number of elephants that died as a result of human-related causes reached 2,011 — up 37% from the previous five-year period.
