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Kolkata, October 23 (IANS) Three people, including a woman and a child, have died in two separate incidents of elephant attacks in West Bengal in the last 24 hours.
The deaths have been reported from Alipurduar district in North Bengal.
According to state forest department officials, the first death due to elephant attack occurred in Madarihat area of Alipurduar district, when a man returning home was suddenly attacked by the elephant on the road adjacent to Jaldapara National Park. The person killed in the attack has been identified as Kader Ali, a resident of Chekamari area.
He was seriously injured in the elephant attack and was immediately taken to Madarihat Rural Hospital by the local villagers, where he died shortly afterwards.
The second incident occurred early Thursday morning. In Central Khairbari area of Alipurduar district on Thursday morning. A woman named Sonia Munda was sitting in front of her house with her 18-month-old daughter Lakshmi Munda, when suddenly an elephant came there from the forest and attacked them. Both of them died on the spot.
Local people claim that for some time now, elephants have been coming to the areas adjacent to the forest and often attacking people. At that time, they were also destroying residential huts of the local people, forcing the people of the area to flee.
Locals have also complained that though they have approached the state forest department officials several times for action to stop elephants from coming into the areas from the forests, the department officials have ignored their pleas.
A total of 436 persons died in West Bengal during the period 2019 to 2024, according to the latest available data from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Shrinking forest area and increase in elephant population are considered to be the most important factors behind the continuing human-elephant conflict in West Bengal.
Several mitigation initiatives have been taken to reduce such conflict incidents, including creating elephant corridors, using physical barriers such as fences, and forming committees to coordinate the movement of elephants.
–IANS
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