Elephants enter 'Gibraltar House', family calls it auspicious

It was a Ganesh Chaturthi, the Malliks will never forget.
For the outside world, a herd of 15 elephants "entering" their century-old Gibraltar House in the scenic Canary Hills here today might be an "intrusion", but for its 71-year-old owner Debal Mallik, the visit by the pachyderms was the "most auspicious moment".
"The herd comprising 12 adults and three calves, including a three-week-old baby elephant entered the palatial 'Gibraltar House', a local landmark, built in 1910, at around 3.45 AM in search of food and did some minor damage to the property in the verandah," Mallik told PTI.
It is perhaps for the first time in the last 200-300 years that elephants have entered Hazaribagh town and "I am not angered by their little act of destruction," Mallik said.

"For the outside world, it might look like menacing but for us, it was the most auspicious occasion. Elephants are generally peace-loving animals and I don't consider their visit as an attack at all," he said.
According to Ajit Kumar, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Hazaribagh East (Forest) Division, the elephants damaged the 'Gibraltar House', built by late S C Mallik, a judge of the Calcutta High Court, but none was hurt in the raids by the pachyderms.

Kumar said the herd was searching for food in the area full of Pipa, Pargad, Pakar and banana trees and bamboo plantation.

"I saw an elephant-calf feeding on her mother elephant," while some other elephants chased away people who gathered there, said Pappu Singh, a resident of the Canary Hills.
The DFO is camping at Jagdishpur forest, close to the Hills, where the elephants have since moved.