Overview
- Authorities report at least 22 deaths over nine days in West Singhbhum, with most attacks occurring at night near forest-edge villages.
- Search operations have scaled up to more than 100–300 personnel with drones and tranquilizer units, yet three sedation attempts have failed.
- The single-tusked bull is moving rapidly through dense terrain—covering roughly 18–30 kilometers a day—making sightings brief and capture difficult.
- Residents have been urged to stay indoors after dark, and many are sleeping on rooftops or in trees as villages erect barricades and use drum alerts.
- Officials and researchers link the surge in encounters to shrinking habitats and disrupted elephant corridors, a long-running driver of human–elephant conflict in the region.