Wild elephant kills two in Bhagalpur, India

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Wild elephant

    
In two separate incidents, two persons were trampled to death by a wild elephant. The deceased includes a 65-year-old woman and a 60 year old man. Crops in the agriculture field besides thatched houses of some of the villagers were also damaged by the wild elephant.

The incidents occurred at remote Dayalpur and Taufir villages under Kahalgaon sub-division in Bhagalpur district late Thursday evening. According to local sources, the wild elephant strayed into Dayalpur village under Antichak police station under Kahalgaon sub-division on Thursday evening. The villagers, on sudden appearance of wild elephant into their village, started raising an alarm. Out of panic, they started hooting to scare away the wild elephant.

Sources said someone from the crowd also fired some shots in the air to scare the elephant away. It all resulted in angering the wild elephant making it ran berserk through the village areas.

Arti Devi, 65, a resident of Dayalpur village, who was walking through the village field to deliver food to her husband working in an agricultural field in the evening, was confronted by the wild elephant that had ventured in the area. It lifted the old lady with its trunk and then threw her down on the ground besides trampling her. Later on, the wild elephant barged into the house of Prithvi Yadav, 60, of adjoining Taufir village under Ekchari police station. Prithvi Yadav also met the same fate, said sources. Sources also said the wild elephant might have strayed into the Kahalgaon villages from Naugachia villages by crossing river Ganga, whereas the grapevine says the wild elephant strayed from the forest areas of neighboring Jharkhand. Mukhiya of Rani diara village Amit Mandal while confirming the incident said it is scary situation for the villagers.

District forest officials, who were informed by the local police and district administration, are camping on the spot to catch or chase the wild elephant away to its natural habitat. The wild elephant is stated to have vanished from the scene.

Kahalgaon SDO Arunabh Chandra Verma said district and police officials along with the forest department officials are trying their level-best to remove the threat to lives and properties of people posed by the elephant.

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