A 40-year-old tribal man Budhram Munda was trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants on Sunday intervening night at Kundala village under Tamar police station of Ranchi district about 50 km from district headquarter.
Kundala is also one of the panchayats of Ranchi under Tamar block.
While the local police and officials of the state forest department were informed about the incident, villagers said that they live under constant fear of wild elephants attacking people and damaging houses and standing crops.
Sandey Munda, brother of the deceased said that the incident took place around 1.30 AM when Budhram ventured out of the house to attend nature’s call. He was unaware that elephants were roaming in the area and he was suddenly attacked by elephants.
He was hit and pulled in air by elephants many times causing serious internal and external injuries causing his death.
Local residents somehow managed to rescue Budhram and he was rushed to hospital at Tamar where he died during treatment.
The incident has left villagers angry as they said that the forest department has yet not developed a mechanism to inform villagers about the movement of tuskers and the department officials take no action to divert movement of tuskers in the residential area.
They further alleged that tuskers often damage property and kill people but the department seldom gives compensation.
About 10 months back a dozen wild tuskers had damaged standing crops and a few houses at Dimra village situated close to Kundala village.
In December last year also one Devashish Sahu lost his life after he was attacked by an elephant at Salgadih in Tamar.
Tamar along with Bundu, Silli, Rahe and Angara is the part of elephant corridor which elephants use to move between Jharkhand to Bengal. Notably, Kundala and surrounding localities are the part of the elephant corridor connecting with Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary.
Ashish Pramanik a resident of Tamar said on an average more than a dozen incidents of tuskers damaging properties and lives are reported in Tamar.