Pulling tail of wild elephant:

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Pulling tail of wild elephant: Foresters gather video for penalty in Jhargram

A youth disturbing an elephant by pulling its tail at a village in Jhargram became a fresh concern among the senior Forest officials today.

This, according to the Forest officials, was 'highly offensive and subject to penalty, as both the Wildlife Protection Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita doesn't allow the act of causing disturbance and irritating the wild animals."

The Forest officials have already gathered a video of the incident and the Divisional Forest Officer, Jhargram, Umar Imam said: "Actions will be prescribed against the offenders accordingly after scrutinising the footage, as per the provisions of the Act."

At Pirakata village outskirt in Lalgarh forests of Jhargram, a youth was identified irritating a young maljurian elephant by pulling its tail. In minutes of the 'daring' incident, the video of the offensive act went viral.

On 22 January 2020, a similar incident was spotted at Jamboni village of Jhargram.

The video grab of that offence, too, had gone viral, prompting the forest department to take note and initiate action against those involved in the act of cruelty.

Such incidents highlight the ongoing issues with human-elephant conflict in the region, as the forest department continues to face pressure and work on solutions for conflict management.

With the continued inflow of the Dalma Range elephants in South Bengal districts like Jhargram, Bankura and West Midnapore leading to increased cases of human-elephant conflict, death of villagers, loss of crops, the experts conducted a sustained research work that revealed that the migrating herd members are suffering from intensified psychological depression due to close proximity of villages to their wild habitats and repeated irritation and attacks caused by the enthusiasts and farmers over the years.

Now, the fresh incident of irritation by pulling the tail of an elephant at the same Jhargram has caused fresh concern.

Joydeep Kundu, elephant expert in Kolkata, too, was perturbed with the nuisance and said today: "Such offending persons need to be penalised at once by the Foresters. The villagers blame the elephants and the forest department after the localities are attacked by the irritated herds, but they forget in a while how they were responsible for tempting the wild elephants."

A youngster Shahul Hameed of Gundlupet near Mysuru was fined Rs 25,000 by the Southern Forest officials for persistingly teasing an elephant and provoking it to chase him on 9 February, this year.

In Odisha, in November 2023, a young man, Dinesh Sahoo (alias Dilip Sahu), was arrested for provoking a wild elephant by pulling its tail. The act, captured on video, led the enraged elephant to charge at locals, resulting in Sahoo's arrest under the Wildlife Protection Act.

In India, irritating, harassing, or harming wild elephants can lead to severe penalties like three years of imprisonment, cash fines under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, as the species is granted the highest level of legal protection.