Hunters ordered to kill rogue elephant

Authorities in India’s remote north-east have given orders to hunt down and kill a rogue elephant blamed for 14 deaths that has been nicknamed Laden by fearful villagers, after the al-Qaida leader.

“We have ordered a hunter to shoot and kill the 10-feet tall tuskless bull that is believed to have killed up to 14 people in the past two years,” Chandan Bora, a wildlife ranger, said by telephone from Bishwanath Chariali, 150 miles north of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state.

The order comes after the bull was blamed for the killing of a woman on Wednesday close to the Behali Reserve Forest, a thickly wooden evergreen jungle where Laden lives.

But it will not be easy for the hunter. The elusive bull has twice before evaded attempts to kill him.

“I am looking for my target with a .400 bore rifle assisted by five forestry officials, but Laden is known to do the vanishing trick every time a hunter is put on its trail,” said Dipen Phukan, one of Assam’s three licensed elephant hunters.

Villagers call the elephant Laden, after al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, because he terrorises them.

“Post 9/11, villagers across Assam have started naming any elephant they suspect of bringing down their homes or feasting on crops as Lade, viewing such pachyderms as terrorists,” said Kushal Konwar Sharma, an elephant expert and teacher at the College of Veterinary Science in Gauhati.

Conflicts between humans and elephants have escalated in north-eastern India in recent years as the destruction of the elephants’ natural habitat has expanded, forcing the beasts to forage for food in human areas.

In the past five years, more than 250 people have been killed in Assam by elephants, while angry villagers have killed 268 elephants during the same period.

Assam is estimated to have 5,300 Asiatic elephants.