Two persons, including a minor, were trampled to death by wild elephants at separate locations in Chhattisgarh’s Balrampur district, officials said on Sunday.
While a 25-year-old man, identified as Kunwar Sai Urao, was killed in the elephant attack at Chargadh village Panchayat last night (January 27), 17-year-old Siddhiqui Akbar died in Gopalpur village last evening, Division Forest Officer (Balrampur Division) BP Singh said.
Both locations fall under Rajpur Forest Range, he added.
For the past one week, a herd of wild elephants had been damaging houses and crops in Patrapara, Jokra and Amdari villages of Rajpur area.
last Friday, the same herd entered Chargadh village after which local residents, including Kunwar, went to drive away the pachyderms.
While others villagers returned home, Kunwar’s mutilated body was found the next morning (Saturday) in the area, the DFO said.
In the second incident, Akbar came under the attack while he was trying to drive away a herd of elephants by bursting crackers near his village Gopalpur. The boy was surrounded by the pachyderms, who killed him on the spot, Singh said.
The kin of both the deceased have been given financial assistance of Rs 25,000 each by the Forest Department, he said.
The thickly forested northern Chhattisgarh, comprising Surguja, Korba, Surajpur, Raigarh, Jashpur and Koriya districts, has a history of human-elephant conflict. The region has witnessed several killings of tribals and widespread damage to houses and crops by elephants in the past few years.