GUWAHATI, NOV 14: Two person were trampled to death by wild elephant at Karipara Tilapara under Matia police station in Assam’s Goalpara district on Monday.
The deceased has been identified as Minjula Khatun and Minajul Haque of Dudhnoi.
According to locals, both were sleeping when wild elephant trampled them to death. Minjula was the mother of 4-years-old Minajul.
“The forest department has failed miserably to stop the elephant depradation. Goalpara district is the most affected in man-elephant conflict. The herd of elephant has been continously moving towards our village in the last several weeks. We have informed the forest department to take step to drive elephant but they failed to take step,” said a local resident.
It is to be noted that for last several months, herds of wild elephants have been creating havoc in Dudhnoi Krishnai and Rangjuli forests. Incidents of man-elephant conflict have become regular problem for the residents of the area.
“After the Gauhati High Court order for creating a task force to stop human-elephnat conflict, why the forest department failed to create the special force, which is fully equiped to stop the conflict between human-elephnat,” alleged a local resident.
“A wild elephant comes out from forest area and trampled both of them to death. It was am unfortunate incident. We have sent the bodies for postmortem. Both were sleeping when the incident occurred,” said a forest official.
He further added, “The elephants are coming out of forest in search of food. Forest covers are shrinking due to rampant cutting down of trees as a result elephants comes out from forest in search of food and enter human habitation.”
According to official figures, Assam lost 75 human lives in 2019-20, as many as 91 in 2020-21, and 63 in 2021-22.
With 5,719 wild elephants (as per 2017 Census), Assam houses the second highest number of wild elephants after Karnataka (6,049).