LATEHAR: Three members of a family including a three-year-old girl were trampled to death by a herd of elephants in Jharkhand's Latehar district, police said on Friday.
The incident happened at around 1.30 am on Friday when a 30-year-old labourer Fanu Bhuinyan was asleep with his 26-year-old wife Babita Devi and three-year-old daughter in a makeshift hut near a brick kiln unit at Malhan Panchyata, around 80-km from capital Ranchi, the police said.
"A herd of elephants appeared in the brick kiln area post midnight and trampled to death all three members of the family. The jumbos also wreaked havoc in the area. Other labourers, who were working in the brick kiln, managed to escape," said Chandwa police station inspector Amit Kumar.
He said that all the three bodies were brought to the police station on Friday morning and they were sent to Latehar hospital for postmortem.
Latehar Divisional Forest Officer Raushan Kumar told PTI, "There has been a movement of around 14 elephants between Balumath and Chandwa forest range for the last several days. On Thursday evening, the herd was seen in Chakla area and we have alerted people."
He said since the incident took place around 1.30 am on Friday and the labourers were sleeping, they could not sense the approaching jumbos.
The family who were killed in the incident belongs to Garhwa district and a relative of the family was given Rs 60,000 as immediate relief, the DFO said.