Wild elephant E-5 rescued after showing signs of distress, now hopes for rehabilitation with a new herd

BHOPAL: For weeks, the lone wild elephant known to forest officials as E-5 was seen as a threat, blamed for the deaths of three people, attacks on cattle and even a stray dog as it wandered through villages in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol-Anuppur forest belt.But deep inside the forests, officials noticed something else: the troubled tusker may not have been rogue by nature, but stressed and disoriented after getting separated from its herd, which had moved back to Chhattisgarh.In what forest officials describe as a rare turning point during a high-risk rescue mission, E-5 unexpectedly formed a calm association with Rama, a trained camp (kumki) elephant from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, a bond that eventually helped teams safely capture and relocate the animal. In a striking development, forest teams observed that the wild elephant voluntarily approached Rama twice and interacted peacefully with the camp elephant on its own, offering the first signs that E-5 was seeking social contact rather than confrontation. Officials said the encounters became a key behavioural clue, helping experts understand the animal’s condition and reshape the rescue strategy.The male elephant had been wandering through the Anuppur and South Shahdol forest divisions, triggering fear in villages after fatal encounters, livestock attacks and damage to homes. Yet when mahouts brought trained elephants into the rescue effort on May 20, officials noticed an immediate behavioural shift. The otherwise stressed and unpredictable E-5 displayed calm, non-aggressive behaviour in Rama’s presence. Wildlife experts interpreted this as a sign of social isolation, believing the elephant was roaming in distress after separation from its herd rather than out of aggression.The rescue operation was carried out under the guidance of Chief Wildlife Warden Dr Samita Rajoura and Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) L Krishnamurthy. The field operation involved joint teams from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, South Shahdol, North Shahdol and Anuppur forest divisions under the leadership of Dr Anupam Sahay, Field Director of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, and Mahendra Pratap Singh, Chief Conservator of Forests, Shahdol. Wildlife veterinarians, mahouts, drone teams and forest personnel remained involved in round-the-clock tracking and village alerts.The first tranquilisation attempt on May 22 failed after E-5 resisted loading, damaging the transport crate and GPS collar. But after revising the plan overnight, officials resumed the operation the next day and successfully radio-collared and shifted the elephant to the Bandhavgarh range, where it has been placed near another herd for monitoring and rehabilitation.For forest staff, the operation ended not just with the capture of a conflict elephant, but with the hope that a lonely tusker, cut off from its herd, might now get a second chance.