Dhurbe ( ne, धुर्बे) is a wild male elephant in
Chitwan National Park
, iucn_category = II
, location = Central Terai of Nepal
, established = 1973
, nearest_city = Bharatpur
, map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#India#South Asia , relief = 1
, label = Chitwan National Park
, label_position = top
, coordina ...
of Nepal that killed 16 people and destroyed more than 50 houses in a span of four years from 2009 ato 2012. Contact with the elephant was lost in 2013 but it has subsequently reappeared from time-to-time.
The elephant is named after a soldier who it killed.
After the initial attacks, the elephant was radio-collared to track its movements, but the radio stopped working after a few weeks. When the elephant killed more people in 2012 officials declared it as a mad elephant and decided to hunt and kill it. 93 soldiers from the
Nepal Army
The Nepali Army ( ne, नेपाली सेना, translit=Nēpālī Sēnā), technically the Gorkhali Army ( ne, गोरखाली सेना, translit=Gōrakhālī Sēnā, label=none; see ''Gorkhas''), is the land service branch ...
and Chitwan National Parks were mobilized to kill the elephant but they could not locate it. Later, the officials claimed that Dhurbe was injured but ran away and survived.
Dhurbe next appeared in 2018. It broke into the army post of Chitwan National Park at Tirthamankali and took a female elephant with him. At the same time, Dhurbe attacked and injured a male elephant named Paras Gaj. In 2020, Dhurbe was radio collared again to track its movement.
In April 2021, Dhurbe attacked a survey team who were counting rhinos.
In October 2021, he appeared again accompanied by a female elephant.
See also
*
List of individual elephants
*Abul-Abbas, Charlemagne's elephant
* Arjuna, lead elephant of the Mysore Dasara procession and carries the idol of the deity Chamundeshwari on the Golden Howdah
*Balarama, preceded Arjuna (see above); Golden Howdah-carrier between 1999 and 2011
...
References
Elephants in Nepal
Elephant attacks
Individual elephants
Individual animals in Nepal
Individual wild animals
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