A 30-year-old woman was trampled to death by wild elephants in Chhattisgarh’s Dhamtari district, a Forest Department officer said on Saturday.
The incident occurred on May 13-14 night in Pardhi village in the south Singpur forest range when Sukhma Bai Kamar was sleeping in her hut, Dhamtari Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Mayank Pandey said.
On spotting the movement of 23 elephants towards Pardhi village, forest personnel alerted the people and shifted them to a safe place in a vehicle. However, the deceased woman refused to leave her hut, he said.
The forest staff again reached the village to convince the woman to leave the place at around 2 am on Saturday but by then elephants had surrounded her hut. The herd destroyed the hut and trampled the woman to death.
The elephants were later chased away, the officer said.
An immediate aid of Rs 25,000 was provided to the son of the deceased.
Last month, five people were killed in separate attacks by a female elephant in the Dhamtari forest division. The jumbo was later found dead in the neighbouring Gariaband district forest.
According to officials, over 200 people were killed in elephant attacks in the state in the last three years.