A herd of elephants that had wandered from Chhattisgarh to Navegaon in Gondia, as well as Gadchiroli, in eastern Maharashtra has now entered Tipagad forest in the latter district, which is part of the infamous red zone where Maoists operate. This has made it difficult to monitor the pachyderms.

Elephant expert Sagnik Sengupta from NGO Stripes and Green Earth Foundation, which has been helping the state forest department monitor the elephants, told mid-day that the herd entered the forest, which is in the Malewada range, around January 6 while the tusker got there around January 11.