Elderly couple among 3 trampled to death by jumbo herd in Bokaro village

Bokaro: A herd of five elephants trampled three elderly members of a family to death and injured two other relatives of the trio early on Thursday at the Barki Punnu village under the Mahuatand police station limits of Gomia block in Bokaro district. The deceased included a husband and wife. Two other women, Karmi Devi (62) and her daughter-in-law Anuja Devi (34), sustained injuries in the incident, forest officials said. Both the injured were extended family members of the trio who died.

This is the third attack by the same herd in which a total of five people were killed.


The deceased in Thursday’s incident were identified as Gangwa Karmali (65), his wife Kamli Devi (62), and his sister-in-law Bhagiya Devi (65).

According to villagers, the attack occurred around 3 am on Thursday when most of the villagers were asleep. The elephants entered the village from the adjacent forest in search of food.

When the jumbos reached Gangwa’s house, they damaged it, and when the family tried to escape, one of the elephants caught Gangwa, locked him with its trunk and slammed him to the ground, leading to his death on the spot. Hearing her husband’s screams, Kamli came out, but she was also trampled to death. Gangwa’s sister-in-law Bhagiya was also trampled to death when she attempted to flee.

Bokaro divisional forest officer, IFS Sandeep Sinde, said, “The herd had been roaming in the Barki Punnu area for several days. A team from the forest department has been deployed to monitor the movement of elephants. The department has initiated the process to pay compensation to the kin of the victims.”

This is the third attack by the same elephants in the Gomia block in the past month, taking the death toll to five in the block. Earlier, the herd had killed two people in separate incidents. While one of the victims was a vegetable dealer, who was forcibly pushed out of his vehicle and trampled to death on January 18, the other victim was a man who tried to save his son from a rogue elephant of the same herd, Sinde said.

Notably, over 25 people have been killed in elephant attacks in the state since January. Of the deceased, a single rogue tusker claimed the lives of 20 people in West Singhbhum district.

The Man-elephant conflicts in Jharkhand have left 474 people dead since the 2019-20 financial year, according to a govt report.