Ranchi: At least six people, including four members of a family, were trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants in a village in Jharkhand’s Hazaribag district on Friday, a forest officer said.
The herd entered Gondwar village in Churchu block on Thursday night and trampled six people to death early on February 13, Hazaribag East Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Vikas Kumar Ujjwal said.
“Among those killed were four members of a family. One child was also seriously injured,” Ujjwal said.
The injured child has been admitted to the Sadar Hospital in Hazaribag, he said.
The group of jumbos had been roaming in Bokaro, Ramgarh and Hazaribag districts for the past few days and had earlier caused casualties in Bokaro, Ujjwal said.
“We had alerted villagers through the public address system as the herd entered the block. Unfortunately, when people tried to flee from their homes, six of them were trampled to death,” he said.
Poonam Devi, one of the relatives of the deceased, said that two of the children were left alone when the elephants came and trampled them.
{{/usCountry}}Poonam Devi, one of the relatives of the deceased, said that two of the children were left alone when the elephants came and trampled them.
{{/usCountry}}The process of providing compensation of ₹four lakh each to the kin of the victims has been initiated, another official said.