more-in A “rogue” tusker which is presumed to have strayed in to Jharkhand after travelling hundreds of miles from Nepal, ended his journey in a poignant way, after being shot by famous Hyderabadi shooter Shafat Ali Khan on Friday night. Before it was killed, the mammoth had terrorised 25 villages around Sahibgunj district of Jharkhand, by killing 11 persons and injuring nine. It had entered the state on April 23, after being chased away from the Bhagalpur district of neighbouring Bihar which did not have any forest. After entering Sahibgunj, he had found enough forest cover which made him difficult to track. Killer behaviour “He developed this abnormal behaviour of raiding the villages at night and pushing the huts down, killing women and children sleeping in them,” Mr. Khan informed. After futile attempts by the veterinary team of the Jharkhand Forest Department to tranquillise the beast, Mr. Khan was summoned by the state government during the first week of August. However, the pachyderm could not be tracked down owing to the onset of monsoons, even as the attacks became more frequent by the day. The shooting orders were given three days ago, after the elephant killed two more persons last week. Thick forests Supported by 70 forest personnel, two teams of trackers, and 20 vehicles at his disposal, Mr. Khan has succeeded in cornering the beast by following its trail for about 16 kilometres in thick jungle. “When we were 30 metres away, the animal turned about and attempted to attack us. I could hear him coming, but saw him only when the distance was reduced to 10 meters. He was coming straight for me, and I had to shoot him. He died with two shots,” Mr. Khan recalled. The tusker is assumed to have lost his way from Nepal and come all the way through West Bengal and Bihar to Jharkhand. In Bihar, he killed four persons before being chased away.

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