Team of 54 trainee forest officers attacked by bees in UP's Mirzapur
LUCKNOW: In Mirzapur, a swarm of honey bees chased and stung 54 trainee forest officers, who were saved by the villagers who drove away the bees using fire and blankets.
The bee attack left all 54 injured, with four being critical.
The forest personnel were trainees who were visiting Mirzapur from Kanpur. All the injured were taken to Madihan Community Health Centre (CHC), with four in critical condition referred to Mirzapur district hospital. After primary treatment, everyone was sent to the district hospital.
A team of trainee officers led by Kanpur Ranger Rajendra Jaiswal had arrived in Mirzapur for hands-on training.
At the time of the incident, all trainee officers were returning after inspecting the Jharinagar nursery in Madihan. According to Ranger Devendra Singh Negi, the team of trainee forest officers had reached the forest nursery located in Jharinagar for training on Tuesday early morning.
Around 11 o'clock, as the team was returning, the honey bees suddenly attacked them. It is suspected that when the trainee officers were standing near the nursery, a bird pecked at the beehive, leading the bees to start stinging.
Forest officers' training is ongoing in Kanpur, while the team was taken to Mirzapur.
Forest department officials arrived to check on the injured as soon as they received information about the incident. Nursery staff and villagers drove away the bees by lighting fires and using blankets.
In this attack, several trainee sub-inspectors, including Sujeet Singh, Sushil Kumar, Ram Singh Yadav, Navdeep, Rajendra, Vivek, Ashish Kumar Mishra, Abhishek and Amit were injured.
CHC Superintendent Dr Radheshyam Verma referred Ranger Rajendra, along with four others, to the Trauma Centre in serious condition after primary treatment.
After the incident, Chief Forest Conservator Arvind Raj Mishra visited CHC Madihan to check on the condition of the injured.
In a similar incident, on May 25 in Lalitpur, special secretary officers went for inspection in Devgarh and the surrounding areas. The nodal officers had only gone a short distance for inspection when bees attacked them.
In this incident, Chief Development Officer (CDO) Kamlakant Pandey, an IAS officer, and Additional District Magistrate Namami Gange Rajesh Srivastava were badly stung by the bees.
Along with them, three employees were also injured.
In the incident, CDO Kamalakant Pandey fell while running. After which he became unconscious. He remained lying for about an hour.
Villagers found him and ferried him up to the main road, which was over a kilometre away from the site of the incident. The CDO was finally taken to Lalitpur Medical College by ambulance. To save CDO Kamalakant Pandey from bees, his gunner Chandrapal Singh clung to him, but the bees attacked Chandrabhan as well.
While the condition of ADM Namami Gange Rajesh Srivastava remained serious, doctors at Lalitpur Medical College removed 500 stings from his face. Moreover, four bees were recovered from his ear. ADM is undergoing treatment at Jhansi Medical College.