NEW DELHI: A team of 100 forest and wildlife officers is on the hunt for a wild elephant that has killed at least 20 people in a days-long rampage in eastern India, officials said on Wednesday.

The elephant attacks have been taking place since early January in the Chaibasa and Kolhan forest areas of West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand state, which is also home to the Singhbhum Elephant Reserve.

“Twenty people have lost their lives,” Aditya Narayan, divisional forest officer, Chaibasa, told Arab News. “This is unusual ... we have put the entire area on alert and asked the villagers not to step out unnecessarily. This is an alarming situation.”

Smitha Pankaj, chief forest conservator in the Singhbhum area, said the animal has not been sighted yet but it has been established that it is a bull in musth — a period of heightened testosterone and a known factor in aggressive behavior.

“This attack has happened when the testosterone level of elephants is at its peak. Besides that, people have also been agitating the elephant,” she said.

“I feel that it has crossed the Jharkhand border ... our team consisting of over 100 people is monitoring the situation.”

The rampage took place as human activity leads to the shrinking of the natural habitat of elephants. Settlements are encroaching on areas that once served as seasonal movement routes for elephant herds.

Rishikesh Singhdev, a forest rights activist, also attributed the attacks to deforestation and insufficient efforts to preserve the elephant population.

“In 2005, the government gave land to humans in the forests and, as a result, the human population in the jungle kept on increasing. It is believed that elephants do their movement on the route that their ancestors have walked. Elephants have killed people who fell on this route,” he said.

“Elephant food habitats have disappeared. This is the first elephant reserve forest in India, but no attempt is being made to preserve and secure the elephants.”