Tusker kills 100yo godman in Katarniaghat sanctuary, 2nd such death in 2 days

Pilibhit: A wild tusker trampled to death a 100-year-old godman inside the core forest area of Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary — an integral component of Terai Elephant Reserve (TER) — when he was having dinner in his thatched hut set up near the Katiyara forest post around 8.30 pm on Sunday.Divisional forest officer of the sanctuary, Apoorv Dixit, said a herd of wild elephants was passing by when a tusker trampled the godman to death. Two frontline forest staffers managed to save their lives by quickly moving away from the nearby forest post, Dixit said.SHO of Sujauli police station, Prakash Chandra Sharma, said the body was sent for postmortem. Victim Suresh Das had taken a vow of celibacy in his childhood and had been living in the thatched structure with his disciple Ram Lakhan to support his routine spiritual activities, Sharma said.Ram Lakhan said he was cleaning utensils outside the hut when the elephant destroyed it. Baba attempted to move out to save his life, but he could not run due to his old age.This was the second fatal man-elephant conflict since Saturday evening, when a 45-year-old woman, Munni Devi of district Kheri, was attacked by a tusker on Bichhia-Katarniaghat road when she was on her way to her native village on a bike with her two sons.DFO Dixit said forest teams were deployed to patrol the area and identify areas that usually see movements of elephants so that alerts could be issued to local communities. "We are also organising awareness camps for locals about the protective measures and skills to avert conflicts with wild elephants," he said