Elephant kills range officer in MP's Panna Tiger Reserve

A range officer was killed by an elephant during a tracking operation in Madhya Pradesh's Panna tiger Reserve (PTR) on Friday, a senior official said.

elephant named Ram Bahadur killed Hitia range officer R K Bhagat (52) using his tusk, PTR field director K S Bhadoria said.

pachyderm and three or tuskers were being used to track down a tiger that had killed ar big cat in a territorial fight, assistant director of reserve R K Gurudev said.

elephant allegedly threw Bhagat off his back and killed him with his tusk, officer said, adding that cause for violence is unkwn.

Ram Bahadur was part of a group of eight tuskers that were brought from neighbouring Chhattisgarh 15 to 20 years ago.