Wild jumbos on Bareilly-Rampur border

BAREILLY: The two wild tuskers who have been separated from their herd on Friday reached Mandanpur village of Bareilly, which is around 4 km from Rampur. An alert has been sounded on Rampur border.

Forest department officials said they will continue with the “push-and-pull” process with the help of three trained cow elephants from Dudhwa.

They have identified three routes leading to the forests of Uttarakhand and Nepal depending on which route the tuskers choose — western, central and eastern directions.

These two jumbos that entered Pilibhit’s Amaria block 18 days ago, have claimed four lives and injured three people. Since then, they have moved to Bareilly, Rampur and Rudrapur and are now back in Bareilly.

Chief conservator of forests, Jhansi, and in-charge of elephant rescue operation, PP Singh said, “Wild tuskers are moving on the right track with a slight deviation. If they deviate to the eastern side, they will be taken to Nepal through Mahof range of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve and Lagga Bagga corridor. If the tuskers hit Western Terai division of Uttarakhand, they can go to Corbett via Ramnagar. If they move towards central side, they will go to Chorgalia and through Gola river corridor, reach Corbett via Ramnagar.”

The push-and-pull process involves lighting a fire at dusk somewhere behind the jumbos to scare them while the three cow elephants from Dudhwa move about 400 metres ahead to attract the tuskers and guide them to safety.

Meanwhile, a team of 12 forest staff will be deployed at Rampur border on Saturday morning as two tuskers have reached Mandanpur village.

AK Kashyap, DFO, Rampur, said, “The team of 12 staff will guard two elephants if they enter Rampur. Besides, we have alerted village heads of villages situated on Bareilly-Rampur border and police.”