Elephant kills two persons in separate incidents in C'garh

Two villagers were Friday trampled to death by a wild elephant in separate places in Chhattisgarh's tribal-dominated Jashpur district, a forest official said.

Both the incidents took place in the morning in Kunkuri forest sub-division area, he said.

In the first incident that took place near Ib river close to Chulahapani village, a man identified as Pankhasiyus Kujur (54) was killed by the tusker when he had gone attend nature's call, Divisional Forest Officer (Jashpur division) Krishna Kumar Jadhav said.

Later, around 2 km away from the spot of the first incident, a man identified as Tarsiyus, a native of Pandripani village, was trampled to death by the same elephant when he was collecting herbal plants in the forest, he added.

This elephant has got separated from its herd which is roaming in Badalkhol Wildlife Sanctuary of the district, he said, adding that forest personnel are keeping a tab on the movement the pachyderm.

The kin of the deceased persons have been provided immediate relief of Rs 25,000 each, he said.

Notably, the forested Surguja division comprising five districts namely Surguja, Jashpur, Koriya, Balrampur and Surajpur, and two other districts Korba and Raigarh of Bilaspur division, have witnessed several such human-elephant incidents.

The region, which falls in northern part of the state, has seen the deaths of several villagers and widespread damages to houses and crops by rogue elephant in the past few years.