Wild elephant enters Ranchi, returns to forest after 5 hours

A wild elephant, which entered Jharkhand's capital Ranchi on Friday morning, returned to forest after triggering panic among people in the city for five hours, a forest official said.

The jumbo moved around the Birsa Chowk and Ranchi airport areas, and a forest team successfully drove out the animal from the city around 10 am, he said.

"The elephant perhaps deviated from its route and entered the city. Since it is school time for children, the forest team followed all safety measures," Ranchi Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Srikant Verma told PTI.

The jumbo was around 12 km away from Ranchi city in a forest around 2.30 pm. "It caused no damage in the city," Verma added.

The DFO said elephants often come to the Dhurwa dam from the Halhu forest area.

The elephant was seen near the National Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technology around 5 am, another official said.

This was not the first time an elephant entered the area around Ranchi city. In June 2024, an elephant strayed close to the Jharkhand Assembly at Kute on the outskirts of Ranchi. Two elephants strayed into an abandoned cold storage in Ranchi's Ratu, around 16 km from the city. In January 2013, an elephant entered the Dipatoli Army Cantonment area of Ranchi city.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had recently expressed concerns over the rising number of casualties due to man-elephant conflicts in the state and directed officials to develop a mechanism to ensure that no human death occurs due to attacks by animals.

Around 27 people died due to elephant attacks in several districts, including Ramgarh, Bokaro, Hazaribag, Chaibasa, Jamshedpur, Lohardaga, Gumla and Dumka, in the past few months, which was a "matter of serious concern", he had said.