E-Paper
Man trampled by elephant in Bengal; eighth death since October 26
Asish Shit was a resident of Andul in Howrah district and used to work for a news portal. He was killed while taking photographs of the pachyderms in the Atadihi area of Sankrail, around 170 kilometres from Kolkata.
A 35-year-old man was trampled to death by an elephant from a wild herd in West Bengal’s Jhargram district on Sunday afternoon, in the eighth such incident in the state in less than 10 days.
Asish Shit was a resident of Andul in Howrah district and used to work for a news portal. He was killed while taking photographs of the pachyderms in the Atadihi area of Sankrail, around 170 kilometres from Kolkata.
There were around a dozen elephants in the herd that Shit tried to photograph. He had gone to the forest with some friends.
“Shit went to take photographs of some elephants that were roaming in the local forest. He went very close to the elephant that trampled him. He was taken to the Bhangagarh hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival,” said Arup Mukherjee, divisional forest officer, Kharagpur.
The attack came only a day after Rajesh Santal, a 35-year-old labourer, was trampled to death in north Bengal’s Daranipur tea garden area. Santal was loading stone boulders on a truck for a road project when a wild herd emerged from the Diana forest.
On the night of October 28, Gaona Oraon, 30, and his wife Kumari Oraon, 28, residents of Depot Line and workers at the Jadavpur Tea Estate, were killed by an elephant when they were returning home after watching a cultural programme.
Gobinda Roy, 22, a mason and resident of Kalimati village in the same area, was killed by an elephant while returning home on the same night.
A woman in West Midnapore district died in an elephant attack on October 30. Laxmi Ahir, 60, had gone to a forest in Goaltore to collect leaves and mushrooms.
On October 26, Chaure Majhi, a temporary elephant handler was flung to the ground by an elephant of the state forest department in Jaldapara national forest’s Hashimara range. The 34-year-old died in a hospital.
