With a villager being trampled to death by an elephant in Sona river range under Kalagarh Tiger Reserve Forest division on Wednesday, the number of people killed this way so far in 2015 has risen to three.
The villagers are scared and angry too. They allege that the district administration and the forest department are doing nothing to protect them from the marauding animals. Notably, the area where the incident happened is known to be the habitat of wild elephants.
It is learnt that Annis, originally from Budhapur village of UP, was crushed to death by the elephant when he went to Pakharo forest to collect woods. Two others who were with him ran away. Upon being informed, Kalagarh police along with forest department staffers rushed to the spot and recovered the body. After the postmortem was done, the body was handed over to the family members of the deceased.
Notably, two persons died and another was injured in elephant attacks before the latest death so far in 2015. On Jan 20, Van Daroga-Bharat Singh Chaudhary was killed in Kotdee range under lansdowne forest division to be followed by Sunita Adhikari, resident of Kumbhichaur, being killed at Kotdee range Sept 19 . All these incidents happened in the areas of the forests known as habitats of the wild elephants.