BHOPAL: Three villagers were reportedly trampled to death by two wild elephants in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh on Monday.
The deaths happened in Sanausi and Dhondha jungles of Godawal Forest area in Shahdol district, which serves as a corridor for elephants to travel from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) towards the Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve.
While directing a probe by the forest department into the entire incident, Madhya Pradesh CM Dr Mohan Yadav announced compensation of Rs 25 lakh each for families of the deceased.
The two wild elephants, which are part of a larger herd from BTR frequently moving in the area since 2020, trampled the three villagers to death in two adjoining jungles while the villagers were plucking Tendu leaves (a minor forest produce which are wrapped around tobacco to create bidis).
The first incident happened in the Sanausi jungle when 40-year-old Umesh Kol along with wife was plucking Tendu leaves. While the wild elephants trampled Umesh to death, his wife managed to save her life by climbing on a tree.
Umesh who earns living by working as a labourer in Punjab had returned home just a few days back only. He was listening to music on his mobile phone and plucking Tendu leaves with wife.
While his wife alerted him about the elephants coming from behind the jungles, he couldn’t hear her due to the song being played on phone. He was ultimately trampled to death by the jumbo duo, a senior forest department official said.
The jumbos subsequently went to the adjoining Dhondha jungles and trampled two other villagers to death. The deceased villagers have been identified as 65-year-old Devaniya Baiga and 80-year-old Mohan Lal Patel, who also were plucking Tendu leaves.
Patel, importantly, was the uncle of a deputy ranger of the forest department, who had told him not to go out to pluck leaves in his absence. While 65-year-old Devaniya was trampled to death by the jumbos, her little granddaughter managed to escape timely.
The elephant duo subsequently travelled to the Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve.
Chowkidar and Guard saved dozens of lives
According to chief conservator of forests (CCF-Shahdol Circle) Ajay Pandey, with the Tendu Leaves plucking season at its peak currently, hundreds of villagers were busy plucking tendu leaves early morning in the jungles.
“Our elephant trekking team was on alert and warning about the arrival of elephants from behind. Had the trekking team, particularly chowkidar Ram Sajeevan Pal and forest guard Jagmohan Singh, not timely alerted the villagers plucking tendu leaves about the movement of the two wild elephants, the casualties might well have been dozens. The two forest department personnel have saved many lives by timely alerts,” Pandey said.
According to a senior forest department official posted in Shahdol district, the herd of wild elephants have been travelling from BTR towards Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve frequently since 2020. But while traveling towards Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve, they’ve been staying largely confined to Beohari circle only (in areas close to the Beohari town). This time, however, the herd of elephants from BTR has travelled 15-20 km more into Godawal forest area.
“The jumbos generally eat the crops during nocturnal hours and stay in the forests during daytime. But they suddenly emerged out of the jungles early on Monday and attacked the villagers, resulting in the three human casualties,” a forest department official in Shahdol said.
While the elephants trampled three villagers to death in Shahdol district, a herd of three male elephants who damaged over 100 houses in nearly two months in adjoining Anuppur district, has returned to Chhattisgarh, giving a sigh of relief to the villagers there.
The Monday morning incident happened six days after the MP state cabinet approved a Rs 47.11 crore detailed plan for management of wild elephants and reducing human-elephant conflicts.
The in-principle approval to the plan by the state cabinet happened on Tuesday, seven months after the death of 10 wild elephants (nine of them being pregnant) reportedly due to kodo (millet) crop mycotoxin poisoning in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in October 2024 end.
According to state forest department sources, around 100 wild elephants (entering various parts of eastern MP from Chhattisgarh) are active in the central Indian state. Out of them maximum 60-plus jumbos have made Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in Umaria and Shahdol districts their home starting from 2016.
Movement of elephant herds have also been reported in eastern MP’s Sanjay Tiger Reserve spread in Sidhi and Shahdol district.
A herd of 16-plus elephants has also made a dense forest area of Shahdol district their habitat since last year.