Two elderly persons -- a woman and a man -- were killed in separate incidents of elephant attack in Chhattisgarh’s Jashpur district on Friday, a Forest Department official said.
A tribal woman, Igneshiya Tigga, 62, was trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants in the Tapkara Forest Range while Bitnath Ram, 60, was killed in the Kunkuri Forest Range, said Shrikrishna Jadhav, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Jashpur.
Tigga had gone to collect mushrooms in a forest near Daijbahar village when she was attacked by elephants, the official said.
The severely injured victim was rushed to a hospital by locals where she died during treatment, he said.
In a similar attack, Bitnath had gone to the forest with his son when they came face to face with a herd of elephants.
While his son managed to escape, the animals caught hold of the victim and slammed him on the ground, killing him on the spot, he said.
The kin of the two deceased have been given an instant relief of Rs 25,000 each, the official added.
Villagers have been alerted about four herds of elephants that have entered Jashpur district from the forests of neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand and destroyed crops in several villages on the inter-state borders, he said.
The official said people have been asked not to go to the forest but they still do to collect wood where they encounter elephants.
Locals illegally lay electric wires around their farms to keep the wild elephants at bay. In the last four months, nine elephants have died in the state due to various reasons, including electrocution. (Inputs from Santosh Choudhary, Jashpur).