Rogue elephants enter IIT-Kharagpur campus, trigger panic

The tuskers, one of which killed a villager and injured another, broke through the boundary wall after smashing the emergency quarters just behind it to enter the campus near the north gate yesterday evening and dropped anchor near a bush, an IIT official said.
The panicked students, who were at a loss to understand the sudden black-out, quickly went inside their hostels, he said.

Announcements were made over loudspeakers asking the residents of not only the campus, but also the Kharagpur town to go indoors.

The elephants were finally chased out of the campus late in the night, forest officials said today.

The tuskers had got separated from the herd sometime back and after being chased by villagers and forest employees, moved towards Kharagpur and Midnapore towns through National Highway 60, they said.

Over the last two days, one of the two had killed a man and critically injured a woman besides pulling down scores of houses at Palsha and Radhamohanpur villages on their way up the highways