Three persons were mauled to death by an elephant accidentally separated from its herd at two different places in Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur district on Friday morning. According to information, elephants are on rampage for past 20 days and nearly five persons have lost their life due to elephant attacks in the last 12 days in Surajpur and Surguja regions.
The incident took place at Matigada forests when 16-year-old Ratan Bargah and his friend Atan Sai were out to collect Mahua fruit, a forest produce, early morning and were suddenly attacked by elephant. Both of them succumbed to injuries on the spot.
Another 20-year-old man Ramsagar, who went with two others in the forest of Palma to collect Mahua, was brutally trampled to death while others ran for life and were saved.
In both the incidents the villagers ventured into the forest before dawn to collect as much produce they could and failed to notice elephant approaching them as it was still dark. It was only in the morning when villagers spotted bodies of the deceased and forest department was further informed.
Chhattisgarh’s northern regions continue to struggle with human-animal conflict where wild elephants, sloth bear, snakes and other wildlife creatures are found in abundance and frequent incidents of attacks and death of both human and animals are reported.
Amid fondness for Mahua fruit, bear and elephants often get aggressive and attack on humans who go into forests to collect them. Furious over hunger and finding nothing much to eat, they usually launch attack humans the moment they spot them inside forest, assuming them as enemies.
Wildlife activist Masoor Khan told TOI, “Amid fight for food and both human animal depending upon forest produce, it’s the duty of forest department to mandatorily divide few patches of forest regions among both and declare a no-go area for humans. One can’t control venturing of animals into villages, but human’s intervention in forests could be controlled.”