The elephant, a lone bull, is reported to have gone on the rampage for nine days beginning in early January, creating panic in the rural West Singhbhum district.

"We are trying to trace and rescue this violent wild elephant that killed so many people," government forest officer Aditya Narayan told AFP, confirming the toll of 20 dead.

Children and the elderly are among the dead, as well as a professional elephant handler, known as a mahout.

But after wreaking a trail of destruction, it had not been spotted since Friday, despite multiple patrols in the area.

Officials said search teams, aided by drones, are combing dense forest tracts, including a national reserve in neighbouring Odisha state.

Fear has driven residents of more than 20 villages to abandon their farms or barricade themselves indoors at night, elected village head Pratap Chachar told AFP.

"A police team, or forest official vehicle, visits in the night to provide essential help to villagers," Chachar said.

Hundreds of thousands of Indians are affected each year by crop-raiding elephants.

Asian elephants are now restricted to just 15 percent of their original habitat.

The usually shy animals are coming into increasing contact with humans because of rapidly expanding settlements and growing forest disturbance, including mining operations.

As elephant habitats shrink, conflict between humans and wild elephants has grown -- 629 people were killed by elephants across India in 2023-2024, according to parliamentary figures.

The elephants that pose the most danger to humans are often rogue bulls, solitary male animals enraged during "musth", a period of heightened sexual activity when testosterone levels soar.

A former forest official said the elephant was likely in musth, and may now have calmed down and rejoined its herd.

India is home to the majority of the world's remaining wild Asian elephants, a species listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and increasingly threatened by shrinking habitat.

The Wildlife Institute of India last year issued a new estimate, that put the country's wild elephant population at 22,446, a report that also warned of the deepening pressures on one of India's most iconic animals.