Wild elephant kills man, damages 2 houses in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur

Jashpur (Chhattisgarh): A wild elephant killed a 25-year-old man and destroyed two houses in a village in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district, forest officials said on Sunday.

The incident took place on Saturday night in Khari Jhirirya village in Kunkuri area, they said.

“The jumbo entered the village and destroyed two houses before moving towards the house of the victim, identified as Anuj Tigga. On hearing the noise, Tigga and his two brothers came out of home and found the elephant busy eating jackfruit in their premises," an official here said.

All of a sudden, the jumbo charged towards them, caught hold of Tigga with its trunk and trampled him to death. His brothers managed to escape from the spot, the official said.

After being alerted, forest and police personnel rushed to the spot and sent the body for postmortem.

The family of the deceased was provided an instant relief amount of Rs 25,000. The remaining compensation of Rs 5.75 lakh will be given after completion of the necessary formalities, the official said.

Jashpur shares border with neighbouring Odisha and Jharkhand and the dense forest at this tri-junction is a prime habitat for elephants.

Human-elephant conflicts in northern parts of Chhattisgarh have been a major cause of concern for the last one decade. The menace has further spread its footprint in some districts of the state's central region in the last few years.

The districts which have been mainly facing the menace are Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur, Gariaband, Jashpur and Balrampur.

According to the forest department officials, over 200 people were killed in elephant attacks in the state in the last three years.