Jharkhand has declared an “elephant emergency” after a rogue male single-tusked elephant killed 22 people in just 9 days in a deadly rampage. Forest officials have been on a hunt for the tusker since the beginning of January.
The most recent victims include a 40-year old man, Prakash Malwa of Benisagar and a child. Eyewitnesses said that the child’s body was caught on the elephant’s tusk during the attack.
A forest official who arrived from West Bengal to deal with the jumbo was also injured as a team of villagers and officials tried to drive it away. The man was repeatedly slammed to the ground, leaving him critically injured.
The attacks began in early this year in West Singhbhum district and around the forests of Saranda, Kolhan and Chaibasa. Several villages were broken into at night and attacked as the victims slept.
The animal is said to have become extremely aggressive after it was separated from its herd. It is also moving at an incredibly fast covering about 30 kilometres a day.
The Jharkhand forest department deployed over 100 personnel to track the animal, NDTV reported. They tried tranquillising it three times, all to no avail.
Wildlife specialists from three other states were also drafted to locate the tusker, but officials say that the animal's volatility and erratic movement made it difficult to track. Officials say that the elephant has been changing its locations quickly, attacking human settlements at night and hiding in dense forests during the day, making it difficult to track.
Human and elephant conflicts have been on the rise in India due to rising deforestation, food and water scarcity and increased encroachment over elephant corridors.
About 10 per cent of areas that used to be elephant corridors no longer exist. Jumbos in India are also dying due to electrocution, trains and retaliatory poisonings.
Divisional Forest Officer Kuldeep Meena said, "This is an unprecedented situation. It's the first time such a pattern of fatalities has been linked to a single male elephant in the region."
Authorities said that the animal is in a musth, a phase where the animal's testosterone levels rise, making them angrier and more aggressive. The behavior can last between 15 to 60 days.
Jharkhand is home to about 550 to 600 elephants. Villages near the forests are the most vulnerable to elephant attacks as the animals move into the human settlements for food and water.
The state saw about 1,400 fatalities and over 600 grave injuries between 2000 and 2025. Preliminary data suggests that the number of attacks may rise in 2026.