Assam: Minor girl among 2 killed in wild elephant attack in separate incidents

Guwahati : In separate incidents in Assam, two persons including a 12-year-old girl died due to attack from wild elephants amidst the increasing man-elephant conflicts in the state.

The first incident was reported from the Doom Dooma area in the Tinsukia district, when a minor girl was attacked by an adult male elephant while she was walking home with her family after attending a religious function. The deceased has been identified as Lakhi Priya Patar.

According to Mriganka Bora, the Divisional Forest Officer for Tinsukia district, the family was attacked by a lone elephant in the wee hours of Monday at around 1:30 a.m. “On Sunday night, hours before the incident occurred, we patrolled that area. We regretfully failed to detect that the elephant was not a member of the herd. The young girl was unable to leave quickly, but the other family members were able to flee the attack," he remarked.

The forest officer further said that a group of forest officials arrived at the scene after the family members told them about the incident."The injured girl was recovered from that area and on reaching a local hospital, doctors declared her dead," he stated.

In another incident, a 40-year-old woman was fatally trampled by a wild elephant in the early hours of Monday morning in Tengabari neighbourhood in the Goalpara district.

According to her relatives, the individual, named as Saharbhanu Nessa, was a resident of the Tengabari area and went to their agricultural field for farming purposes. Following the incident, locals expressed their outrage, accusing the forest department of failing to take appropriate action to stop the confrontation between humans and elephants.

However, the officials refuted the accusation, claiming that it was an accident. Over 10 such cases have been reported from different districts of Assam this year, according to forest officials. In one instance, a forest official who was on duty also died.

Earlier on November 23, four people -- including a woman and two children -- were crushed to death by a herd of elephants in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district.