In a shocking incident, a wild elephant parted ways from a herd of tuskers strayed into the residential areas and killed an elderly man at a village under the Chakulia block area in the Ghatsila sub-division of the East Singhbhum.
The victim, Sukra Munda (62) was going to meet nature’s call at about 4 am when the tusker attacked him.
Forest range officer Chakulia Digvijay Singh confirmed the trampling death of an elderly man at dawn. “We have been requesting villagers not to venture out of their homes until daybreak as a herd of 13 migratory elephants is in the Chakulia range area. Despite the warnings, Sukra Munda came out of his home and fell victim to the wild elephant,” said Singh.
He informed that the forest department paid Rs 25,000 as a part of the compensation amount of Rs 4 lakhs to the widow of the victim by noon.
The range officer, when queried, said initially the herd was anchored in the Chakulia jungle having crossed over to Jharkhand from the Bengal in October’s first week.
"As we cannot stop the elephants from migrating from one jungle to another, but can safeguard the villages from the tuskers' attack on the villages as well as the paddy fields, we have set up separate teams for tuskers- driving wherever the chances of the menace is maximum," said another forest official. People are in a state of havoc due to such menace. Sometimes villagers migrate to safer places for a week or more to avoid the sudden night-time attacks of the wild elephant herds.
Concerned over the repeated incidents of trampling deaths near a village in Chakulia bordering Bengal, the forest department has decided to carry out a joint drive with the forest department of Bengal for driving away the herd in question.
The herd of wild elephants which has been causing havoc since the past one week is to be driven into a deep jungle by the joint team of forest departments, but the destination remains undisclosed.
Initially, the herd had damaged mud-houses and destroyed stock of paddy straying into human habitat and later it has started killing the villagers.
The forest department's quick response team (QRT) had driven away the herd twice just after getting complaints of house and paddy stock being damaged by the herd, but it does return to the same village again and again.
"As the herd has become accustomed to the village and getting increasingly violent, we have decided to carry out a drive jointly by the forest department of Bengal. We will drive the small herd of killer elephants to a deep jungle," said the official.