Four, including 2 minors, killed by wild elephants in Assam

GUWAHATI: Four villagers, including two minor boys, were trampled to death by wild elephants in the hill district of Karbi Anglong in Assam on Thursday.

The deceased have been identified as Kania Toria (55), Ribika Kerketta (28), Geseya Kerketta (3) and one-and-half year-old Augustin Karmakar. All of them are from Bormanthi village.

Forest department officials said the incident took place around noon when Kania and Ribika were cutting grass, probably to feed their cattle, in an isolated location in the Lalubasti area near Bokajan town. The two boys were with them at that time.

"Elephants have been roaming around this village to eat paddy. Since it is the harvesting season, we have also deployed forest guards in the village, especially at night time. But this incident was beyond our control," range officer, Eastern Range (Bokajan), Pranab Terang, told TOI.

"They were cutting grass near a kutcha road. We got the information of their death from the village headman at 1 pm. The incident must have taken place one hour before," said Terang.

All four bodies will be sent for post mortem on Friday.

Forest officials said though wild elephants from the nearby hills come down to the village frequently, such deaths were not reported from the village for the last several months. "With support from village volunteers, we have been able to check human deaths here but this incident was totally unexpected," said a forest official.


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