Two villagers were trampled to death by a wild elephant in Raigarh district on Sunday morning, taking the death toll to five in past three days.
With onset of Tendupatta season, the human-elephant conflict is expected to rise as more and more people would be venturing into the jungle for collecting tendu leaves which is used for making ‘bidi’. Tendupatta is a major source of income for rural households in Chhattisgarh mainly among tribals.
The latest incidents took place in Dharamjaigarh forest division of Raigarh district on Sunday morning when the victims had gone to collect tendu leaves in the forest.
In the first incident, the deceased identified as Guruwar Singh Rathiya (54), a native of Khadgaon village, was attacked by the tusker in a nearby forest leaving him dead on the spot, Divisional Forest Officer (Dharamjaigarh) Pranay Mishra said.
Later around 5 km away, the same elephant attacked Tejram Agariya (54) of Semipali village leaving him dead, he said.
The kin of the deceased persons have been given an immediate aid of Rs 25,000 each, Mishra added.
A herd of 11 elephants has been spotted in this forest and the elephant which attacked villagers on Sunday is part of the same herd, he said.
On Saturday, a retired army man was trampled to death by an elephant in Sithra village of Raigarh. Earlier, on Friday, two villagers were killed by a wild elephant in neighbouring Jashpur district.
According to UD Minj, MLA Kunkuri there is need to aware people about wild elephant in the region.
“In summer season, the water sources dry up in the forest and elephants are forced to move out of jungle in search of water which leads to untoward incidents,” Minj told The Pioneer.
Loss of elephant habitat due to de-forestation is also fuelling up the problem, he said.
Amalendu Mishra wildlife expert based in Surguja who has been closely monitoring the situation for over two decades said the department is installing radio collars to the wild elephants, but it is not sufficient.
In Surguja five radio collars have been attached to five elephants, which are in same range. Three of them are male and male elephants have a tendency to stray away from the heard which makes it difficult to know the exact location of the heard in real time, he said. Tagging collar to Matriarch leader of the heard could make the surveillance more effective, he added.