Jumbo on road, brake on traffic... FORESTERS TAKE 3 HOURS TO CHASE TUSKER AWAY

TT, 17 August 2019, Alipurduar/Jalpaiguri: A wild tusker ambled onto the National Highway 31 near Dalgaon tea estate in Alipurduar's Birpara on Friday, spending about an hour on the busy stretch during which traffic came to a halt.

Foresters rushed to the spot and but it took them about three hours to steer the jumbo back to a nearby forest.

Sources said workers of the Dalgaon tea estate under Falakata block were surprised to see the huge tusker on Friday.

A section of workers started throwing stones and tried to chase the animal back to the forest.

Soon after, foresters from Dalgaon Forest Range reached the spot. It was raining in the morning and at around 7.30am, when workers were busy in their job at the plantations, some of them noticed the animal near a tea bush.

As they raised the alarm, the elephant loitered in the plantations for some them and then, after an hour, it walked up to the highway.

It suddenly spotted a tractor and chased it. The driver of the vehicle managed to escape.

After an hour, it went to another section of the garden. This time, foresters could reach near it and after much toil, it was sent back to Dal- gaon forest.

Leopard caught An adult female leopard was trapped in a cage laid by the state forest department at Lakkhipara tea estate near Banarhat of Jalpaiguri on Friday morning.

A team of foresters went to the spot and rescued it. The leopard was taken to Lataguri where it has been kept under observation. The animal will be released into the Gorumara National Park in due course, said foresters.

Sources said for the past few days, locals had reported having seen a leopard. After this, the forest department decided to lay a trap in the plantations.