- A wild elephant in Chitwan National Park succumbed to a bullet wound Jan. 5, 2025, after allegedly charging at a patrol team and throwing a ranger off his mount.
- The radio-collared elephant had been lingering around human settlements, damaging properties and alarming locals and hotel operators, leading to increased patrols and discussions on managing the issue.
- Local officials had pressured the national park to take action, but authorities say the shooting was an act of self-defense.
- Critics argue that since the elephant was radio-collared, its movements could have been tracked, and better nonlethal measures could have been taken.
KATHMANDU — On the morning of Jan. 5, a soldier deployed at the Chitwan National Park shot a wild elephant (Elephas maximus) after it allegedly attacked an elephant patrol attempting to guide it back into the jungle.
According to the national park, the makuna (a name given to bulls without tusks) charged at the patrol party, throwing ranger Shyam Tamang off his mount. To save the ranger, the soldier fired at the animal, and it later died, according to a release issued by the Chitwan National Park following the incident.
Although it appears to be a straightforward case of self-defense, some conservationists and activists say the incident involving an elephant that had been radio-collared only a few months ago, is concerning.
“The team couldn’t do anything to stop the elephant,” said Abinash Thapa Magar, information officer at the national park. “As the lives of the team members were at risk, the soldier opened fire aiming for its legs,” he added. But the bullet struck the animal’s neck and it died.
Wild Asian elephants, categorize such as the makuna and its herd once roamed the entire east-west corridor of Nepal’s southern plains. Although their historic population remains unknown for paucity of records, the flood plains of the Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali provided enough food for them and the lack of human settlement meant they could move freely. But today, the human migration rush to the terai, development of roads and infrastructure hindered their free movement.
The makuna, first seen in the tourist town of Sauraha in the winter of 2023, was part of a migratory herd moving along the traditional elephant migratory route in southern Nepal. However, it abandoned its herd, as some young bulls do, and stayed back in Chitwan, where it could get enough to eat and the opportunity to mate with domesticated female elephants, researcher Ashok Ram said.
Even before the arrival of the makuna, other bulls such as Govindé, Dhurbé and Rolando, all of whom had abandoned their herds during different times, had already been roaming Chitwan and its surrounding forests. The new entrant was similar to the trio as it also hovered around sheds of fertile cycling domesticated female elephants. However, the makuna was a bit different from the rest, as it used to roam around human settlements even during the day; the trio would do that only at night. Also, the trio has killed dozens of humans; the makuna hadn’t killed anyone.
Officials have tried several measures to control the aggression of bull elephants. In October 2022, they tried detusking another bull to calm it down. But in the case of the makuna, this wasn’t possible. Park authorities also tried darting the elephant with tranquilizers to guide it to the forest, but to no avail, Thapa Magar said.
This prompted the national park authorities to regularly patrol the tourist town along with representatives from the local community forest user groups and the hotels to keep watch for the animal. They were worried that tourists who can’t differentiate between domesticated and wild elephants could get hurt trying to take a selfie with the makuna.
“We had been receiving a lot of complaints about the makuna, especially from hotel operators,” said Kiran Mahato, ward chair of Ratnanagar Municipality. According to local media reports, the elephant had vandalized the walls of at least 12 hotels and roofs of five houses.
“It used to charge whenever it saw anyone in front of it,” Mahato added.
The municipal officials, under pressure from their electorate, talked to the national park about the elephant several times, Mahato said, adding that each time they would get assurances that they would do something about it.
The national park had organized a meeting of the local representatives and community forest group leaders a few days before the firing incident took place, information officer Thapa Magar and ward chair Mahato confirmed to Mongabay. However, both of them said the meeting focused on the management of the elephant problem and on setting up an integrated shed for female elephants outside human settlements.
An official at the Ratnanagar Municipality, who didn’t want to be named as the official wasn’t authorized to talk to the media, told Mongabay that following the meeting, ward chair Mahato told his assistants to prepare a letter to the national park seeking immediate action to resolve the makuna problem. Although Mahato admitted that he had instructed his assistant to prepare the letter, he said he had done so on his own, and no one had instructed him to do so.
When Mongabay asked information officer Thapa Magar if there was any discussion regarding a possible shooting down of the elephant, he said that the national park would never think of doing that. “The meeting discussed conducting more frequent ‘sweeping patrols’ to guide the makuna into the forest,” he said. “That was exactly what the team was doing when it was forced to open fire,” he added.
But critics have raised concerns over the incident. Activist Shanker Luitel said that as the elephant had been radio-collared, its movement could have been easily tracked and nonlethal means used to control its movement. “They said that they had to open fire, as their life was at risk, but it is common knowledge that human life is always at risk when entering wild animal habitats,” he said, adding that the incident needs to be investigated.
According to Nepal’s conservation laws, it’s illegal to kill protected animals such as elephants. However, Section 21 of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act provides an exception in cases where human life is in danger.
A former official at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, wo didn’t want to be named fearing possible retribution, said rangers as well as soldiers are taught not to open fire on animals even when they face grave danger. “But when there is an adrenaline rush in tense situations, it’s difficult for rangers, who are also humans, to control their emotions,” the former official said.
A total of 116 soldiers have died in Nepal while serving in various national parks over the past 50 years. Many have been injured and disabled during the course of their work.
Information officer Thapa Magar told Mongabay that although the elephant had been radio-collared, its location wasn’t available in real time. “We only received updates every few hours,” he said. “Our intention was to guide it to the core area of the national park so that it finds food there and stays there,” he added.
Banner image: The makuna photographed in Sauraha, Chitwan in September 2024. Image courtesy of Madhu Chetri.
Abhaya Raj Joshi is a staff writer for Nepal at Mongabay. Find him on 𝕏 @arj272.
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