Four, including 17-month-old child, killed by elephants in Assam

Four persons including a 17-month-old child were killed and one person was injured by wild elephants in two incidents in Goalpara district of Assam on Thursday, officials said.

In the first incident, a herd of wild elephants attacked vehicles plying on state highway 12 at Lakhipur and killed three persons including the toddler. The deceased have been identified as Zaibar Ali, Ramani Rabha and Rabha’s 17-month-old daughter Jenisa. Another woman, wife of deceased Rabha, sustained injuries in the incident.

“A herd of elephants was crossing the road when two vehicles–a small car and an electric rickshaw– carrying passengers drove towards them. This agitated the pachyderms and they attacked the vehicles,” said Khanindra Choudhury, deputy commissioner, Goalpara.

“The incident happened at 1.30pm at Sigri village. The herd had been moving in the area for the past two months and used to cross the road in search of food. While motorists stop vehicles when the elephants cross, drivers of the two vehicles didn’t do so, which in turn led to the incident,” he added.

In the second incident, a forest department employee was killed in an attack by a wild elephant at Solmari in the same district. The incident took place at 6pm when the deceased Sahadeb Rai was trampled by the pachyderm.

“Rai was returning after completing his day’s duty when the elephant attacked him. The injured victim was rushed to the nearby hospital but was declared brought dead,” said Jitendra Singh, divisional forest officer, Goalpara.

Singh said that this season 20 persons were killed in Goalpara district by wild elephants. Thursday’s incidents took the figure to 24.

According to government figures, in the past 10 years, human-elephant conflict has claimed lives of 800 persons and around 250 pachyderms.

Last year, 70 elephants died in the state. As per official figures, while 24 of these deaths were due to natural causes, 3 were due to electrocution, 3 because of poisoning, 4 in train accidents, 1 due to injury, 18 due to lightning and 17 because of “unknown” causes. During the same period, 61 persons were killed by elephants.

The human-elephant conflict peaks during the winter months when the pachyderms leave forests and come out in search of food. Angry villagers who want to save their homes, crops and lives try to electrocute or poison the pachyderms. According to a 2017 census, Assam (5,719) has the second highest population of wild elephants after Karnataka (6,049).

As per forest department, in the past years’ measures like constitution of anti-depredation squads, erection of solar-powered electric fences to prevent pachyderms from moving towards human habitations and intensive patrolling to monitor movement of elephants have been undertaken to reduce human-elephant conflicts.