Family rescued before elephants flatten house in Jashpur

Raipur: Three members of a tribal family were rescued from their mud house minutes before an 11-member elephant herd reached and flattened it in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district, forest officials said. on Wednesday.The midnight rescue took place in Bhadrapara hamlet of Tildega village in the Pathalgaon forest range, where Jai Kumar Nag's family lived in a kutcha house in their fields. Forest officials said they had tracked the herd for the past fortnight in the Nandanjhariya forest and alerted nearby villages.The team evacuated the family to safety moments before the elephants arrived and began pulling down the house. The family was not injured but was left shaken, officials said.Jashpur DFO Shashikumar said the same herd damaged three other houses in the area and that compensation cases were registered for all affected families.Forest officials said they received an alert around midnight on March 24 that an elderly couple was trapped inside the house as elephants surrounded it. They said Jai Kumar escaped, but his parents Bitan Nag (65) and Rajmati Nag (60) remained inside, unable to step out due to the herd.Following the alert, the Jashpur DFO said patrolling staff and a rapid response team were dispatched. Amid anxious villagers, officials said the team first drove the elephants in a safe direction, secured the area, and then entered the house to evacuate the elderly couple.The two were shifted to a safer location in a govt vehicle.Pathalgaon range officer Kripasindhu Painkara said the herd was under constant surveillance, with advance alerts issued to villages to minimise risk.