Jhargram: 2 die in jumbo attack, CM announces ex-gratia of Rs 5L each

Two elderly men lost their lives in an attack by a female elephant in Jhargram district on Wednesday.

The forest official on the scene reported that the attack occurred following the death of the pachyderm’s cub.

Expressing condolences, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote on X: “Sad to note that in an unfortunate incident this morning in Jhargram district (village Deulbar), a mother elephant, guarding her dead calf, became violent and killed two persons & damaged some houses, when a curious crowd assembled to see the spectacle of her grief, despite our forest staff’s warning. I announce compensation @Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased and promise house repairs of the affected. Condolences to the families of late Sahadhar Mahata and Ananta Jana.”

The distraught elephant also caused chaos by ransacking a bus and a motorcycle near the renowned Rameshwar temple, situated within the Chandabila Forest Range in Nayagram.

The elephant’s aggression was triggered when a group of people gathered to see the cub’s carcass. In a violent outburst, the elephant trumped two men to the ground, leading to their deaths. The victims were identified as Ananta Jana (60), a resident of Deulbar village under the Nayagram Police Station limits and Shahadhar Mahata (60), hailing from the neighboring Biribiara.

Shivananda Ram, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Kharagpur, explained: “Some people ventured to witness the elephant cub’s carcass in the Chandabila Forest Range and the elephant attacked them. Although most of them managed to escape, the two elderly men were flung to the ground and lost their lives on the spot.” A 40-member forest personnel team was deployed to monitor the situation.

Meanwhile in a separate incident, a temporary worker at Madarihat Gram Panchayat (GP), Shyamdas Sharma, lost his life in an encounter with a wild elephant in the Meghnad Saha Nagar area of Madarihat on Wednesday. Shyamdas was on his way to his daily duty at the Gram Panchayat office, where he was responsible for switching off street lights when he unexpectedly encountered a wild elephant that attacked him.