A 40-year-old man was on Monday trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants in Gharghoda forest range of Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district.
The victim, identified as Nirbandhu Rathiya, came face-to-face with the herd of about 10 to 12 elephants near his native Nawapara village when he had gone to pick wood in the forest, according to Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) RK Pandey.
On spotting the elephants, Rathiya had tried to escape from the spot but the they surrounded him and hit him with their trunks before trampling him, he said.
Soon after receiving news of the incident, police personnel and forest officials rushed to the spot.
The kin of the deceased have been given an instant relief amount of Rs25,000, Pandey said.
Notably, as many as six villagers were killed in separate cases of human-elephant conflicts last month in Korba district of the State.
The thick forested northern Chhattisgarh, comprising Surguja, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur and Koriya districts, are notorious for human-elephant conflicts.
The region has witnessed several killings of tribals and widespread damage to houses and crops by elephants during the past few years.