India launches massive hunt for rogue elephant after 22 killed in rampage

WEST SINGHBHUM, India — Forestry officials in eastern India are hunting a rogue elephant that has killed 22 people since early January.

The one-tusked bull elephant has been moving through forests and villages in the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand state. Authorities said the attacks primarily occur at night, with victims including a forest official and a family of four—a couple and their two small children.

The region remains under high alert as residents are warned to avoid forests and stay indoors after dark. Officials believe the animal is a young male that was separated from its herd and has since become "extremely aggressive."

More than 100 forest rangers have been deployed to track the elephant, which reportedly travels nearly 30 kilometers each day. Wildlife experts from three neighboring states have also been called in to assist, though three previous attempts to tranquilize the animal have failed.

The incident highlights a rise in deadly human-elephant conflicts in India, which experts attribute to deforestation and human encroachment into elephant migratory corridors. More than 2,800 people have died in such encounters across the country over the last five years.

The recent tragedy in Jharkhand is more than an isolated account of a rogue animal; it is a clinical manifestation of a systemic crisis in India—the escalating friction between human expansion and wildlife preservation.

With more than 2,800 fatalities recorded over the past five years, the scale of this conflict has reached a critical inflection point. India’s aggressive economic trajectory, characterized by rapid industrialization and demographic pressure, has accelerated deforestation and squeezed keystone species into increasingly fragmented habitats. The "rogue" bull elephant at the center of the Jharkhand incident is likely a symptom of environmental stress—a displaced individual forced into human settlements as its natural range and food sources vanish.

This crisis serves as a cautionary tale for other emerging economies, particularly Vietnam. Though the scale differs, provinces such as Dong Nai, Nghe An, and Dak Lak have already encountered similar flashpoints. In these regions, the disruption of traditional migratory corridors has led to crop destruction and fatal encounters, mirroring the Indian experience.

New Delhi’s current operational response—mobilizing hundreds of specialized personnel and deploying AI-driven monitoring technologies—underscores the gravity of the situation. However, these measures remain largely reactive. From a policy perspective, the root cause is a failure in land-use planning and a lack of integrated biodiversity corridors. Until governments prioritize sustainable co-existence frameworks and address the structural drivers of habitat loss, these tragedies will remain an inevitable byproduct of unplanned development across the Global South.