Two killed in elephant attacks in Chhattisgarh; toll reaches 3 this week

Raigarh, Jul 11 (PTI) Two persons were killed in separate attacks by wild elephants in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district on Saturday, taking the number of such fatalities in the state to three this week alone, forest officials said. The attacks occurred in the early hours of the day in the Chhal and Kapu forest ranges of the Dharamjaigarh division, they said. Panic broke out after a wild elephant entered the Talgaon village under the Kapu forest range, and in the chaos, one of the villagers, Shakuntala Bai (37), was killed by the tusker when she came running out of her house, Dharamjaigarh Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Jitendra Upadhyay said. The victim's minor daughter narrowly escaped, he said. In another incident, Bandhan Singh Agariya (50), a labourer, was similarly killed by a wild elephant in Auranara village under the Chhal forest range around 5 am when he had stepped out of his house to answer nature's call, Upadhyay said. Forest and police personnel rushed to both spots after being alerted by villagers and sent bodies for the post-mortem, he said. Immediate financial assistance of Rs 25,000 has been provided to the families of each deceased, while the remaining compensation of Rs 5.75 lakh each will be released after completion of formalities, the official said, adding that further investigation is underway. Human-elephant conflict has remained a major concern in northern Chhattisgarh for more than a decade and has expanded into parts of the central region in recent years. Korba district and the Dharamjaigarh area of neighbouring Raigarh are among the worst-affected regions, along with Surguja, Surajpur, Jashpur and Balrampur districts, where frequent elephant movement into villages and agricultural fields often results in human casualties and crop damage. With the latest incidents, the state has reported three elephant attacks this week alone. On July 9, a 55-year-old man was trampled to death by an elephant while collecting wild mushrooms in a forest in Korba district, while a 40-year-old herdsman and a 70-year-old woman were killed in similar attacks in the district last month. According to forest department officials, more than 330 people have been killed in elephant attacks across Chhattisgarh over the past five years. PTI COR TKP ARU