Love bites: Male elephants clash over female in W Midnapore forest

25 July 2011

biswabrata goswami
MIDNAPORE, 25 JULY: A jungle love story played out in West Midnapore when two male jumbos clashed for several hours over a female elephant, a forest official said today. One of the male elephants was injured.
“Two male wild tuskers battled in Satbandhi forest in Garbeta for several hours on Sunday over a female elephant, and a 15-year-old elephant was injured,” a forest officer said.
Local residents, having spotted the tuskers fighting deep inside the forest between the Humgarh and Amlagora ranges, informed the local beat offices, which sent a team to track down the animals. Even though blood trails were found at several places, the two warring elephants were only finally tracked down this afternoon.
Mr Asish Kumar Samanta, divisional forest officer of Midnapore, said, “We are searching for the injured tusker but our men have not managed to locate him yet. We are also trying to locate the movement of the elephant group as the pachyderm that won the battle might also have suffered serious injuries and may be in need of urgent treatment”
“Although no forest official saw them fighting, the way the defeated elephant suffered injuries to his head, neck, and thigh confirms that it was a bloody fight between two male elephants over the right for "love play" with a female elephant,” a forest officer stated.
He said since last weekend, a herd of over 60 elephants has come down from the Dalma forest range of Jharkhand and entered the forest ranges of West Midnapore. There is a confirmed report that two dominant males in this group clashed over a female jumbo.
Wildlife and elephant experts in the district said that this is a common phenomenon during breeding season. Male elephants, in search of a female partner, fight each other. In the past few years, several elephant fights have occurred in this forest region.
Mr Rana Purohit, a wildlife expert, said, “Normally this type of clash occurs when a resident elephant falls in love with a female from the new group of elephants. The leader of the group never accepts the outsider, who engages in a fight with the resident to prove his domination.”
But, according to local residents, two male tuskers of the same group of elephants fought each other, damaging crops and property in the process. On Saturday night, about 10 elephants had parked themselves on NH-60, holding up traffic for a while. They then marched towards Garbeta College, damaged a part of its boundary wall, and smashed a hostel gate.
Forest officials and medical teams, equipped with tranquiliser guns, have intensified their search for the tuskers, fearing that they could pose a threat to nearby villages and passing vehicles.