Tusker elopes with circus elephant in Bengal : India

Kolkata, Aug 30 - A wild tusker from Jharkhand enacted a play of passion in the middle of the night, broke through the fence of a circus and eloped with a female circus elephant. The incident occurred Tuesday night at Kumarbazar in Raniganj, around 175 km from here, where the Olympic Circus had put up a tent 10 days ago. Drawn by calls of the four female elephants in the circus, the 26-year-old tusker raided the circus, broke the tin barricade and barged into the stable where the female elephants were kept, reports said. After scanning the four pachyderms, he finally settled for Savitri - four years older than him - and coaxed her into fleeing with him into the jungle. It didn't take long for Savitri to give in to his wild charms. Despite entreaties from her keeper, the female elephant broke free of her shackles and went with him into the jungle where the residents spotted the two frolicking near a pond. The tale of love and passion has shocked Savitri's manager Chandranath Banerjee, who has sought the forest department's help to trace the female elephant. 'I have never seen anything like this. Savitri's loss could be huge as she was one of our prized elephants,' he said. The elephants were finally spotted moving from Badam Bagan to Nepali Para in Raniganj by a district forest officer in Durgapur, Kumar Bimal. When a team of forest department officials along with her keeper Kalimuddin Sheikh tried cajoling Savitri to come back, she entwined her trunk around her lover's leg in a show of defiance. A crestfallen Kalimuddin said this was the first time she had disobeyed him. 'I have raised Savitri since childhood and she has always been obedient. But the tusker seems to have won her affection,' he said. Till late at night, the forest officials were seen trailing the pachyderms with flaming torches. They were last seen heading towards Mejia in Bankura district along the Ranigunj-Mejia Road.