Gone for a funeral, ten villagers hurt in bee attack

Indore: In the third

attack

of

bees

in a fortnight reported in rural area of Mandsaur, at least 10 villagers were

stung

on Thursday. In similar attacks, an elderly man had lost his life while around 50 persons had suffered injuries.

“On the death of an elderly of Barkhedaloya village, around 200 villagers had gone to perform his last rites at a crematorium. Thick smoke emanating from the burning pyre would have enraged bees on the nearby trees following which they attacked the people there,” sarpanch Balkrishna Patidar told TOI.

He said that while most of the people managed to escape, at least 10 got trapped and were stung. “One of the victims has been hospitalized while remaining were being treated in a hospital of Garoth tehsil,” Patidar said.

A similar incident had occurred on Saturday when as many as 50 people, who had gone to perform the last rites of a villager, were attacked by bees at the crematorium of Titrod village in Sitamau, Mandsaur. Six people were taken to hospital as they were received grievous injured while remaining were sent home after preliminary treatment.

In the recent past, multiple

bee

attacks have been reported in rural areas of the district. In one such incident, an elderly person who had taken his goats for grazing had died after being attacked by bees at Bholamagra in Garoth.

“We have recorded the death of the elderly by bee attack,” said Garoth police station in charge Narendra Kumar Yadav, adding that as incidents of bee attacks are increasing, they would approach the forest department to shift beehives to a safe distance from the human settlements or take other appropriate steps, if any, to help avert such situations.