Elephant herd tramples farmer to death in Jharkhand

Mukhiya of Baheri Panchayat said that a herd of elephants has been roaming around and destroying the standing crops in the region but the Forest Department did not take any concrete action in this regard.
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RANCHI: A farmer was trampled to death by a herd of elephants in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand. The incident took place at Baheri village under Sadar Block of the district at around 1 am on Friday.

The deceased has been identified as Chhotu Mahato, 57, son of Somar Mahato. According to Mukhiya of Baheri Panchayat, Pawan Kumar Yadav the deceased had a temporary house outside the village near his fields and was earning his livelihood by season-based farming. Very often he used to stay in the house near his fields as and when required.

On Thursday night, he was with his wife in his house built in the field. “All of a sudden at around 12:00 in the night, a herd of elephants entered Chhotu Mahto's fields and also destroyed the house built by him. Out of panic, he started running away from there. Meanwhile, an elephant lifted him with his trunk and knocked him out. Later they also trampled him to death,” said the Mukhiya.

His wife somehow managed to save her life by hiding herself behind the walls, but Chhotu Mahto died on the spot, he added.

The Mukhiya further added that for the last week, a herd of elephants has been roaming around and destroying the standing crops in the region but the Forest Department did not take any concrete action in this regard.

Meanwhile, financial assistance of Rs 25000 has been given by the Forest department as an immediate relief to the deceased’s family. The department has also warned the local people to stay away from the herd of elephants.

The situation still remains critical as the herd of elephants is still present in the forests and is entering the villages during the night in search of food. The people residing in the region are demanding relief from the terror of elephants from the forest department.

According to data available from the forest department, out of the total of 24 districts, 20 districts have elephants, due to which, on average 80 people are killed, while over 150 suffer injuries in man-elephant conflict every year in Jharkhand.

Admitting that humans have intruded into the elephant corridor resulting in an increase in man-elephant conflicts in recent years, the state government has launched an elephant tracking app 'Jharkhand Elephant Tracker' which can be downloaded from Play Store.

Besides informing people about exact location of the elephants, this app also helps people in making preparations to deal with the menace. An integrated alarm mechanism has also been introduced into the app wherein alarms are sent through SMS and WhatsApp to villagers as soon as an elephant enters within a 5 km radius of their villages.

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