Darjeeling (West Bengal) [India], April 19 (ANI): An adult male elephant wandered into the North Bengal University (NBU) campus near Siliguri, causing panic among students and staff before taking shelter in a small forested area within the campus, officials said on Saturday.

Kurseong Forest Division officials, along with local police, reached the spot to monitor the situation and ensure public safety.

Minor property damages were reported, but no casualties occurred, authorities confirmed after the incident that took place on Friday.

Rahul Deb Mukherjee, Assistant Divisional Forest Officer (ADFO) of the Kurseong Forest Division, told ANI, 'The elephant entered the university campus, which has a significant stretch of forest and wetland, along with ample water sources. The animal is currently resting in the area, and there have been no reports of any casualties. We are planning to guide it back to the nearby Bagdogra Range forest by this evening.'

Earlier last month, a carcass of a Makna elephant (male elephant without tusks) was found in the jungles of Bagdogra in the Kurseong division of Darjeeling.

Rahul Deb Mukherjee, Assistant Divisional Forest Officer (ADFO), said that a fight broke out between a tusker (elephant with tusks) and a Makna elephant, after which the latter was found dead in the jungle.

Mukherjee said that the clash occurred between the two animals due to territorial issues. He added that the Makna elephant was injured in the fight.

Mukherjee said that the forest officials discovered the elephant carcass and that the forest department was monitoring the tusk elephant involved in the fight.

Meanwhile, in Assam, Aaranyak, a wildlife NGO based in Guwahati, recently organised an exposure visit for the local community members from villages affected by human-elephant conflict (HEC) in eastern Assam and West Garo Hills in Meghalaya, within the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong landscape of Assam.

'An exposure visit was conducted from April 4 to 7 for the 'Village Champions' (VCS), local community members from villages affected by human-elephant conflict (HEC) in eastern Assam and West Garo Hills in Meghalaya, within the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong landscape of Assam,' as per a release from Aaranyak.

This exposure visit was conducted from April 4 to 7 and was facilitated by a community-based eco-cultural tourism initiative under the 'Journey for Learning.'

The VCs are trained community members who facilitate Aaranyak and British Asian Trust's initiative to bolster human-elephant coexistence through a bottom-up approach of community empowerment and monitoring HEC, supported by the Darwin Initiative,' the release read.

During this visit, the team interacted with the indigenous Karbi community on the eco-tourism model, agroforestry, sericulture, and handloom and handicraft practices. The team also had an interesting interaction on the experiential Karbi-way of cooking in bamboo nodes. (ANI)