Forest officials in India are on the hunt for an elephant that has killed more 20 people in a days-long rampage through the eastern state of Jharkand.

Since the beginning of January, 22 people have been killed by a single-tusked elephant that has been tearing through forests and villages in West Singhbhum district of Jharkand.

The attacks have mainly taken place at night as the elephant has entered small villages. The first victim was a 35-year-old man in Bandijhari village on 1 January. Since then, those trampled to death or suffering fatal injuries have included a couple and their two young children and a forest department official.

The region has been put on high alert and residents living in the Chaibasa district, where the elephant was last spotted, have been warned to stay away from the forest areas and not go out at night.

Aditya Narayan, divisional forest officer of Chaibasa district, said they believed a young male elephant had been separated from his herd and become “extremely violent”. Narayan said three attempts had been made to tranquillise the elephant but all had failed so far.

“Our team is on high alert, and efforts to tranquillise it will be resumed. Villagers have been strictly advised not to go into the forests and to remain vigilant,” he told local media.

The elephant has been covering almost 30km a day and more than 100 forest department personnel have been assigned to the search operation to track him down but without success.

Wildlife specialists from three other states have also been drafted in to try to locate the elephant, but officials said the animal’s volatility and erratic trajectory through the forests made it hard to monitor his movements.

The rampage comes as deadly human-elephant conflict is on the rise in India, attributed to rising deforestation, food and water scarcity and increased residential encroachment in areas that were once elephant corridors.

Roughly 10% of the areas that used to be elephant corridors – safe routes for their migration – no longer exist. Elephants are also dying in high numbers from incidents such as electrocution, train hits and retaliatory poisonings.

Over the past five years, more than 2,800 people in India have died from deadly encounters with elephants.

In states such as Andhra Pradesh, AI early warning systems have been introduced in some villages to detect elephant intrusions and protect villagers.