Tribal man trampled to death by wild elephant in Ch’garh

A tribal man was on Thursday trampled to death by a wild elephant in Balrampur district of Chhattisgarh, police said.

Kishore Urao (35) encountered an elephant herd at a field near his native Gobindpur Pahadipara village under Pasta police station in the wee hours, a police official told PTI.

“Before he could run away, he was trampled to death by one of the elephants,” he said.

As per preliminary information, after spotting the pachyderms near the village, located around 400 kms from here, the villagers rushed to their farms to protect the standing crops, the police official added.

“In the process, Kishore got surrounded by the elephants and one of the animals hit him with its trunk before stomping on him. Other villagers tried to save him, but could not,” he said. On being alerted, police and Forest officials reached the spot. The kin of the deceased was given a compensation of Rs 25,000 by the Forest officials, the police official said.

A case has been registered in this connection, he added.

The villagers have been advised not to go near the forest and the fields as the herd has reportedly been roaming in the area for about a month now. 

The thick forest areas of northern Chhattisgarh, comprising Surguja, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur, Balrampur are infamous for human-elephant conflicts.