The Wildlife Protection and National Park Department has deployed seven of its personnel to track down and capture the elephant roaming in northern Kedah state, the official Bernama news agency said.

The department's Kedah chief Rahim Ahmad said that so far the elephant had eluded the hunting team and was believed to have entered the forest near the plantation where it struck on Sunday.

"If they find the elephant, which was believed to have broken off from its group, the team will capture it," he told Bernama.

Rahim said elephant attacks on humans were rare and the department wanted to find out why the animal was behaving so aggressively.

Mohamad Yusni Mohamad Yunan, 26, awoke on Sunday after feeling a sharp pain to find himself face-to-face with the wild elephant goring him with its tusks.