About 100 wild elephants have thronged a northeast India island in a river, demolishing homes, feasting on sugarcane and panicking residents, officials said Saturday. Thousands of villagers were using firecrackers and bonfires to try scaring away the rampaging animals. «Dozens of houses have been destroyed in the past three days by adult elephants entering human settlements to look for their wandering calves,» said the local magistrate, L.S. Changsan. Up to 50 families have moved to a local school being used as a refugee camp, the Associated Press quoted Changsan as saying. About 150,000 people live on the 875-square kilometer (338-square miles) island of Majuli in the Brahmaputra River, nearly 350 kilometers (220 miles) east of Assam state's capital, Gauhati. Officials say the elephant rampage started nearly a week ago. They believe the animals swam to Majuli from hills in adjoining Arunachal Pradesh state. India has Asia's largest elephant population, with 10,000 to 15,000 of the animals. However, numbers are declining because of habitat loss and poaching.
