Nepal Launches All-Out Operation to Capture Killer Elephant 'Dhurbe'

CHITWAN – Chitwan National Park has deployed round-the-clock patrols in a renewed effort to capture Dhurbe, the notorious wild male elephant blamed for killing at least 25 people over the past 15 years, after it recently claimed the lives of a 25-year-old woman and her four-year-old son in Chitwan. The joint operation, involving park officials, veterinarians, the Nepali Army and technicians from the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), has been searching for the elephant for the past week. However, officials say the animal has repeatedly evaded capture by remaining deep inside the forest during the day and venturing into nearby settlements at night. The latest operation follows the July 4 attack in Jagatpur in ward 23 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City where Dhurbe killed 25-year-old Ashika Bote and her four-year-old son Bharat Bote after breaking into their home. The incident sparked protests by local residents, who demanded that authorities immediately control the tusker and provide relief to the bereaved family. Since then, the elephant has continued to move across western Chitwan, damaging houses in Meghauli and, most recently, in Bankatta of Madi Municipality, where it destroyed the house of local Deepak Bote late on Friday night before retreating into the forest. “We have deployed patrol teams in three shifts, operating round-the-clock, from the park headquarters,” said Dill Bahadur Pun, chief conservation officer at Chitwan National Park. “The teams are monitoring the areas from Jagatpur to Meghauli Golaghat and Madi, but the elephant has remained difficult to locate because it hides in the dense core forest during the day.” According to Pun, poor visibility caused by dense vegetation and the monsoon weather has made tracking the elephant particularly challenging. Authorities plan to tranquillise Dhurbe using a dart gun as soon as it is located. Officials will then fit it with a new satellite tracking collar and trim its tusks, which park officials believe could help reduce its aggressiveness. “The new collar is far more advanced than the previous one,” Pun said. “It can transmit the elephant’s location as frequently as every 15 minutes and comes equipped with geofencing technology. If the elephant enters a designated high-risk area, the system immediately sends an alert, allowing our response teams to act quickly.” The previous collar transmitted the elephant’s location only once an hour. Officials said geofencing has already been programmed for villages stretching from Jagatpur to Meghauli Golaghat and from Bankatta to Bagai in Madi, where the elephant frequently strays into human settlements. Dhurbe has been fitted with tracking devices three times before. A radio collar was first attached in November 2012 after authorities abandoned an attempt to shoot the elephant. Satellite collars were later fitted in 2020 and again in 2023, but the latest unit has deteriorated and no longer provides reliable signals. Park information officer Abinash Thapa Magar said the upgraded collar would allow officials to monitor the elephant’s movements in real time through mobile phones and computers, enabling quicker deployment of response teams. Dhurbe’s violent history stretches back to 2010, when it began attacking people around Chitwan National Park before expanding its range into Bara and Parsa districts. According to the park, the elephant has now killed 25 people, including Ashika and Bharat Bote. Following the deaths of 15 people, the government ordered the elephant to be shot in December 2012 and spent around Rs1.6 million on a military operation to hunt it down. Despite being wounded, the elephant escaped into the dense forest and reappeared in western Chitwan in 2016. As reported by the Post last week, Dhurbe has repeatedly devastated the family of Shanichara Bote. The elephant killed Shanichara’s parents in Madi in 2012, forcing the family to relocate to Jagatpur. Fourteen years later, it found the family again, and killed Shanichara’s daughter-in-law and grandson. After Shanichara’s parents were killed, a high-level emergency security meeting chaired by the Chief District Officer issued a formal executive order to track down and kill the elephant. What followed was an intensive two-week operation involving the Nepali Army and conservation personnel in the dense forests of Chitwan. Wildlife experts say fitting the elephant with a satellite collar remains the most practical short-term measure to protect nearby communities. Hari Bhadra Acharya, senior ecologist and information officer at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, said long-term solutions should also be explored. “Continuous monitoring through satellite collars can help protect local communities, but a permanent solution could involve establishing a sanctuary for such aggressive elephants,” Acharya said. He added that Nepal’s wildlife laws also allow authorities to destroy elephants officially declared rogue, although such a decision requires clear evidence and official approval. Chitwan is also home to other wild bull elephants, including Ronaldo and Govinde, which conservationists say play an important role in breeding with captive female elephants. However, human-elephant conflict continues to claim lives in and around the park every year, as local communities press for a lasting solution. ANN/The Kathmandu Post