An elephant named after the late Al-Qaeda terror leader, Osama bin Laden, has been caught after killing five Indian villagers.
Wildlife officers tracked the huge animal dubbed ‘Osama Bin Laden’ by locals it tormented in northeastern Assam state – through a forest for several days using drones and domesticated elephants.
The rogue animal killed five people, including three women, during a 24-hour rampage through Goalpara district October.
“We started the final leg of the operation today. Two darts were fired by experts which had tranquilized the male elephant,” a senior forestry official told AFP.
“Now the work is on to shift the elephant to a forest where there is no human habitation nearby.”
Officials said they would take the elephant’s welfare into account as well as the safety of people living nearby in deciding where it would be relocated.
Nearly 2,300 people have been killed by elephants in India over the past five years, according to official figures released in June, while 700 elephants have been killed since 2011 – figures resulting in part from shrinking natural habitats.
Elephants frequently migrate into Goalpara, resulting in high numbers of fatal encounters with humans amid rampant deforestation.
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Some elephants there have been poisoned or shot by locals, while others have died on electric fences or on railways cutting through migration routes.
