Jharkhand forest department's efforts to use trained camels to drive wild elephants back to deep forest was 'unsuccessful' after the herd entered a residential area on the borders of Ranchi-Khunti districts injuring a couple of villagers.
"Three trained camels were brought yesterday to drive a herd of about 12 elephants into the forests. The elephants did go some distance at the sight of the camels, but they came back and chased away the camels and the forest officials," the region's forest guard, Naval Paswan, said today.
The strategy to use camels had worked in the past, but this time around the pachyderms frightened the camels, he said.
The wild elephants entered the area on Saturday and began destroying crops over large stretches of land, Paswan said.
They also and injured a couple of villagers, prompting the forest department to take assistance of camels after spotting the herd near Mahamaya temple in Haradih.
