Hazaribagh: Six people, including four members of a family, were trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.
“The incident occurred around 2 am in the Ango Gondwar Bhuiyan Toli village under the Churchu block. The victims included two minor children, aged one-and-a-half and four years. One child died while undergoing treatment at the Sheikh Bhikhari Medical College and Hospital,” a district administration official said.
Reports say that the herd of five elephants entered the village and first attacked a 60-year-old man. When other family members rushed out to help, they were surrounded and trampled to death.
A quick response team reached the spot and began efforts to drive the herd back towards the forest, Hazaribagh (East) divisional forest officer Vikash Kumar Ujjwal said.
“Effort has been started to drive the herd toward the Kargi forest,” the DFO said.
While the forest department is assessing The cause, preliminary findings pointed to unfamiliarity on both sides, Ujjwal said.
“Wild elephants had never been seen in the locality where the incident took place, thus people unaware of the elephant’s behaviour came out of their houses, making the animals even more aggressive. Besides, elephants were also not aware of the landscape of the locality,” he said.
