Woman trampled to death by elephant in Chhattisgarh

Raigarh: An elderly woman was trampled to death by an elephant in Dharamjaigarh forest division of Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district, an official said today. Guruwari Bai (65), a native of Tendumadhi village, was attacked by the rogue elephant when she went to pick 'Mahua' flowers in Dadhikhar forest under Chhaal police station limits yesterday, he said.

Some other villagers, who were also present in the forest, managed to run away when they saw the pachyderm but Guruwari failed to escape in time. The elephant smashed the woman to the ground with its trunk before trampling her to death, the official said. The police and forest officials rushed to the spot after getting information about the incident.

The woman's body was handed over to her relatives after the postmortem, he said adding that a case has been registered in this connection. The kin of the deceased have been given an instant relief amount of Rs 25,000 by the forest department, he said. Last week, two men were killed in separate incidents of attack by elephants in Surajpur district.

Several incidents of human-elephant conflict have been reported in the past from the thick forested northern Chhattisgarh, consisting of Surguja, Surajpur, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur, Balrampur and Korea districts. The region has witnessed several killings of tribals and widespread damage to houses and crops by rogue elephants.