GUWAHATI, DEC 16: In a tragic incident, four persons including a 17-month-old child were trampled to death by wild elephants and one person was injured in two incidents in Assam’s Goalpara district on Thursday.
According to reports, in the first incident, a herd of wild elephants attacked vehicles plying on state highway 12 at Lakhipur and killed three persons including the toddler.
The deceased have been identified as Zaibar Ali, Ramani Rabha and Rabha’s 17-month-old daughter Jenisa.
Another woman, wife of deceased Rabha, sustained injuries in the incident.
“The elephants have come from Meghalaya and creating havoc in Goalpara for the last few days. We have appealed the forest department to drive the elephants from Goalpara but they failed to take any step and today four people were killed by elephants,” said a resident of Goalpara.
He said, “We urged chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to intervent into the matter and take step to stop the man-elephant conflict.”
Goalpara Deputy Commissioner Khanindra Choudhury said, “A herd of wild elephants was crossing the road when the two vehicles a small car and an electric vehicles carrying passengers were passing. Suddenly the wild elephants attacked the vehicles.”
“The incident occurred at 1.30pm at Sigri village. The herd had been moving in the area for the past two months and used to cross the road in search of food. While motorists stop vehicles when the elephants cross, drivers of the two vehicles didn’t do so, which in turn led to the incident.”
In the second incident, a forest department employee was killed in an attack by a wild elephant at Solmari in the same district. The incident took place at 6pm when the deceased Sahadeb Rai was trampled by the pachyderm.
According to government figures, in the past 10 years, human-elephant conflict has claimed lives of 800 persons and around 250 pachyderms.
Last year, 70 elephants died in the state. As per official figures, while 24 of these deaths were due to natural causes, 3 were due to electrocution, 3 because of poisoning, 4 in train accidents, 1 due to injury, 18 due to lightning and 17 because of “unknown” causes. During the same period, 61 persons were killed by elephants.
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