Wild tusker elopes with circus elephant in eastern India

New Delhi - In an action-packed love story, a wild tusker emerged out of the jungles of the eastern India, broke through the fences of a circus and eloped with a female circus elephant, news reports said Thursday. The incident occurred late Tuesday night in Raniganj in West Bengal state, about 175 kilometres north of state capital Kolkata, IANS news agency reported. Drawn by the calls of four female circus elephants, the randy tusker broke down a metal barricade to enter their stable where he settled for 30-year-old Savitri, report said. It was love at first sight for Savitri, too, and she ignored the entreaties of her keeper to follow her Romeo into the jungle. Locals were quoted as saying that the pair was seen frolicking near a pond in the area. Chandranath Banerjee, manager of Olympic Circus, said Savitri cost over 400,000 rupees (about 9,749 dollars) and was one of his prized possessions. He sought the help of the Forest Department to recover the pachyderm, but has met with no success. The elephant pair were seen moving to another forest in the area by a forest official. A team from the Forest Department along with Savitri's keeper Kalimuddin Sheikh caught up with them and tried to persuade the female elephant to return, IANS reported quoting an official. Sheikh said Savitri refused to come to him and entwined her trunk around her lover's leg in a show of defiance. "I have raised Savitri since childhood and she has always been obedient. But the tusker seems to have won her affections," a crestfallen Sheikh said. Forest officials said a team was still trailing the elephants, who were last seen heading further north.