Elephant reunited with herd in West Bengal

An injured elephant has been reunited with its herd in Darjeeling district of West Bengal due to the initiative of forest officials and an animal protection group.

The young female elephant, part of a larger herd, was injured by an Assam-bound goods train at Mongpong at dawn on Monday, Ranger, Gorumara Wildlife Division, Samiran Sikdar said.

The injured animal stayed back at Mongpong, though the herd had started moving towards nearby Apalchand forest, Sikdar said.

On being informed by locals, forest officials and representatives of the Society for Protection of Orifauna and Animal Rights(SPOAR), the animal protection group, rushed to the spot and provided necessary treatment to the pachyderm.

" After providing treatment, we kept a distance from the elephant as there have been instances of elephants rejecting members of their herd, if they come into contact with human beings," Sikdar said.

On Tuesday, forest officials and SPOAR representatives, directed six elephants from the group of 40, to the spot where the injured elephant was resting.

They went near the elephant at Mongpong and the injured elephant stayed with the group throughout Tuesday, the forest official said.

The two groups of elephants assembled at Mongpong on Wednesday, helped the injured elephant to get up and reunite with its herd.

Both the forest official and SPOAR secretary, Shyama Prasad Pandey, claimed the operation to reunite the elephant with the herd as a "major success".