Wild elephant enters Assam's Tezpur town, goes on rampage

Guwahati, Aug 30 (IANS) Panic spread Assam's Tezpur town on Saturday when a wild elephant entered the town after crossing the Brahmaputra river and went on a rampage, damaging a few vehicles parked on the road, officials said on Tuesday.Sonitpur district Superintendent of Police, Susanta Biswa Sarma told IANS that the elephant entered at around 7.30 p.m."As it came into the middle of the town all of a sudden, people got panicked. However, the elephant could not cause much damage to property. A few vehicles were damaged by it," he said.Sarma said that Sonitpur district has dense forests in many places and hence whether the elephant came all the way from Kaziranga National Park or any other place could not be ascertained."The forest officials took the necessary action and the elephant finally went back to the jungle," he added.Divisional Forest Officer Ramesh Gogoi said that these types of incidents happen in Tezpur town once or twice every year.Asked about where the wild elephant came from, he said: "This cannot be said precisely. But since Kaziranga is at a good distance from Tezpur, it is possible that the elephant came from some nearby forest."According to the forest officials, the elephant entered a house in the Chanmari area of the town in search of food. It then went to a park where a large number of people gathered to catch glimpse of the animal. While crossing a local bus stand, the elephant damaged a car and a few two-wheelers that were parked roadside.Meanwhile, the scenes of the wild elephant on a rampage in the town went viral on social media.
--IANS tdr/vd

(Disclaimer: This post has been auto published from IANS news agency without any modification to the text and has not been reviewed by editor)