Indian forest officials have face-off with wild elephant after it raids their kitchen

Indian forest officials struggled to drive out a wild elephant after it entered their campus and was spotted inside a kitchen on September 5.

The officials at a Special Task Force (STF) unit near Coimbatore in southern India struggled to draw the the elephant out of the kitchen and then drive it out of their campus.

They deployed a jeep blaring its siren to scare the elephant away and lit firecrackers as well.

There were tense moments as the elephant stood its ground and came face-to-face with the jeep, which was forced to retreat.

The elephant left the campus but late in the night damaged a house at a nearby tribal settlement.

Officials have named the tuskless male elephant ‘Bulldozer’ as it has been found to cause trouble by demolishing homes and raiding farms. The elephant has severe injuries in the oral cavity and is being treated by the forest officials, who are feeding it flour mixed with medicine.

A special team is monitoring the elephant to prevent it from straying into villages.

“The elephant is not well and was tranquillised a year ago in Kerala.

It cannot take one more tranquillising,” said a forest official.

The official said they had to use drastic measures on September 5 to drive out the elephant as it was about to step on a cooking gas in the kitchen.