Teliamura, Feb 24, 2023, TRIPURA TIMES Desk

Teliamura, Feb 24: The strong bond with the wilderness always remains hidden and unnoticed –until the day comes. It may remind one the ‘Call of the Wild’, the celebrated novel of Jack London where Buck the dog moves by his regained wild instincts and returns to his wild ancestors –only to become the leader of the pack.

At Mungiakami elephant camp under the Teliamura Forest Department, everything appeared usual and normal and Kishore the jumbo was apparently in his own self. One of the four domesticated elephants of the forest department he did not show any anxiety or irritation or anger or restlessness. Calm and quiet as always he spent his entire day munching and whiling away.

But then all of a sudden in the evening he stood up tore apart the chains, injured mahout and left. The injured mahout was taken to the hospital. The incident triggered panic and sensation as the jumbo remains elusive till filing the report.

The area is always frequented by families of wild elephants and we suspect that Kishore might go deep into the forest and joined the wild tuckers, said one official adding that ‘search was going on”.

However, despite frenetic searches, the escaped elephant is yet to be traced. 

Four domesticated elephants – Madhu, Malti, Moti and Kishore – were to Mungiyakami to protect the people residing in the foothills of Atharomura from the attacks of the wild elephants. Besides, plans were mooted to develop the area as a tourist spot centering the elephant camp. Things were going on smoothly so long, however, on Thursday evening, ‘Kishore’ became agitated and attacked the mahut. It tore apart the chains and ran away towards the deep forest. 

Soon after the incident, Forest Department personnel started a desperate search for Kishore. The search operations were intensified today and several senior officers of the Forest Department rushed to Mungiyakami to oversee the search. The lost elephant remained elusive till the last information was received. 

Meantime, as the reports of Kishore’s escape spread, people living in elephant attack prone areas became panicked fearing jumbo attacks in the villages.