Elephants trample 50-year-old man to death in Raigarh

A 50-year-old man was trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district, a forest official said on Tuesday. Baratram Rathiya, who was guarding his field on Monday night, encountered the pachyderms near Khamhar village in Dharamjaigarh forest division, he said.

When he failed to return home the next morning, the matter was reported to the police and his body was eventually found in the forest, the official said. A herd of 12 elephants has been spotted in the area in the last couple of days and despite several warnings, villagers, like the victim, continue to venture into the forest at night, he added.

Forest personnel have been directed to keep tabs on the herd's movement to prevent human-elephant conflicts, he said. In the past, several cases of human-elephant conflict have been reported in the forests of northern Chhattisgarh including Surguja, Surajpur, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur, Balrampur and Korea districts. The region has witnessed several killings of tribals and damage to property and crops by rogue elephants.