RANCHI: Three persons, including an elderly man, were trampled to death by wild elephants in two separate incidents in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district on Friday morning.
One incident occurred at Banda village, where two persons died, while the second took place at Murpa village, where an elderly man was trampled to death by wild elephants, they said.
According to locals, a herd of 12 elephants that strayed into the Gola forest range in Ramgarh from Bokaro trampled three people to death in separate incidents across the area.
The deceased have been identified as Shamdev Saw (65), who had gone to gather Mahua fruits and two laborers --- Dheeraj Bhuiyan (26) and Jugal Bhuiyan (30), who were sleeping at a brick kiln.
The first incident took place in Murpa village, where Shamdev Saw—who had ventured into the forest to gather Mahua—was surrounded by the elephants and trampled to death. He died on the spot.
The second incident was reported from Banda area, where, elephants suddenly attacked two labourers who were sleeping at a brick kiln and trampled them to death. Villagers from Gola-Pipra village alleged that the forest department team has failed to curb the elephants' destructive behavior.
Villagers questioned the forest department’s operational efficiency, alleging that they are not given timely or accurate information on elephant movements, often leaving them dangerously close to the animals without warning.
They added that although a Quick Response Team (QRT) had been deployed over the past five days to track the herd, it failed to determine the elephants’ precise location.
Meanwhile, the department has provided an immediate relief payment of Rs 25,000 to the kin of each of the three deceased individuals. The remaining compensation amount of Rs 3,75,000 will be disbursed once the necessary administrative formalities are completed.