Villagers sleep on rooftops as runaway elephant kills 22 persons

An elephant which has killed 22 persons in India remains at large as petrified villagers have been forced to sleep on rooftops for fear the vicious animal might return.

The young male animal has been terrorising people in the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand in eastern India for over two weeks and, tragically, four children including an eight-month-old baby are among those that the beast mauled to death.

The elephant is distinctive as it only has one tusk and is thought to be in an aggressive mating season known as musth – a period of increased sexual libido and aggression which can last up to 20 days.

The beast started its killing spree on January 1 and has caused many people to abandon their makeshift homes and some have sought refuge in treetops or on flat roofs.

Hunters are trying to locate and stop the elephant, using high resolution drones and tranquilliser darts.

The killing has spread panic across the region, officials say.

Aditya Narayan, a division forest officer of the Chaibasa district, said: “Anyone who came in front of it was trampled. In one family alone four people were k!lled. It is unprecedented.

“We have seen elephants in musth in the past, but they’d rarely harm people.”

Incidents of human-elephant conflict have been rising in the region for years, driven by shrinking forests caused by construction, habitat fragmentation and increased human settlement along elephant corridors.