Dozens of wildlife guards have been re-deployed to parts of the East Mamprusi Municipality to rescue an elephant that escaped a mob attack three days ago.
The elephant was part of a herd drifting from the Upper East Region and got attacked by residents at Gbintri.
This was after a farmer was killed while attempting to capture them onto his phone.
According to a report by the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, two of the elephants were subsequently pursued and killed in retaliation but the other managed to escape.
The report said an overnight search for the animal after the incident ended unsuccessfully and officials assumed the wild animal was either fatally injured and out of the human-dominated area or died from possible injuries.
However, a new report received Friday evening, according to the Wildlife Division, indicated the elephant was sighted wandering in farmlands near Nalerigu, the regional capital.
“Some women, who saw it around Nalerigu, had to run for their lives,” Regional Manager, Joseph Binlinla confirmed to JoyNews‘ Eliasu Tanko.Â
“So we quickly dispatched men and they are there to rescue it,” he continued.Â
The wildlife rescuers are either to divert it to its habitat or sedate and rehabilitate it to safety.
Human elephant conflict is common in the North East Region which is part of the Red Volta elephant range.
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The forest reserves and bordering savanna vegetation also form an internationally important elephant migratory corridor linking the Red Volta range to elephant ranges in the Republic of Togo and the Republic of Burkina Faso, and thereby allowing cross-border movement of elephants among the three countries.
The incident comes as authorities of the Wildlife are still pursuing to retrieve a pair of tusks of one other elephant which was also killed by residents at Wungu in the West Mamprusi municipality.