page_title: Baikunthapur Forest
section_title: Elephant issues
hierarchical_section_title: Baikunthapur Forest / Elephant issues
caption_attribution_description: Indian Elephant at Mudumalai National Park
context_page_description: Baikunthapur is a Terai forest region in the western part of the Dooars in West Bengal, India, south of the Himalayan foothills, between the Mahananda River to the west and Teesta River to the east. The main towns in the area are Siliguri and Jalpaiguri. The forests are partly in the Darjeeling district and partly in the Jalpaiguri district.
  Baikunthapur is an important ecological zone, home to many wild elephants, but is threatened by growth of the local population. The least disturbed areas are in the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary.
  Historically, the Baikunthapur forests were the secure base of the Raikat princes in the time when Koch Bihar was an independent kingdom. Lord Krishna is also said to have found refuge in the forest at one time.
context_section_description: The elephant population in West Bengal is healthy and expanding. This is causing problems. Elephant depredation or the destruction of human settlements and raiding of agricultural crops has been occurring since ancient times, but the increase in both human and elephant populations in recent years is causing a growing number of incidents. Human-elephant clashes have become a regular feature in the tea gardens of Jalpaiguri district. There is a growing number of reports of poisoning and electrocution of the elephants by farmers trying to protect their fields. In July 2008, an elephant that had strayed out of the Baikunthapur forest range near Jalpaiguri trampled to death one man and injured another who came in its way. The Siliguri-Alipurduar broad gauge line cuts across the corridor that connects the Apalchand Reserve Forest of Baikunthapur Forest Division and the Mal Block of Kalimpong Forest Division. In seven years up to 2008, 26 elephants have been killed by trains on this line.
caption: Indian elephant in forest
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-S650", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.3", "Image DateTime": "2008:03:22 16:10:59", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.4.9", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "284", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "14820", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6759", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "24/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "250", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:02:05 07:44:05", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:02:05 07:44:05", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "87/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}