GUWAHATI, Dec 10: In an unfortunate incident, a two-year-old girl died after she was hit by bullets fired “in the air” by a forest team during an operation to chase away a herd of wild elephants in the Bondapara area under Boko police station in Assam’s Kamrup district on Friday afternoon, sources informed.
According to reports, the child, who was declared dead by doctors at a primary health centre in Boko, was identified as Arbi Daimary. Her mother, Malobika Daimary, was hit in the neck by bullets fired by the forest team and later taken to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) in a critical condition.
The shocking incident has triggered outrage against the forest team in the area with an angry mob even blocking national highway 17 for about an hour.
However, Boko police station officer-in charge, Bhadreswar Pegu, West Kamrup divisional forest officer Dimpy Bora along with Boko revenue circle officer Raj Baruah rushed to the spot and controlled the situation even as they had to pacify the irate mob for some time.
No official statement was released by the forest department till Friday evening. But sources said a forest protection team from Bamunigaon started firing in a bid to disperse the herd of elephants from the area around 3pm.
Human-elephant conflict has been affecting areas in both Kamrup and Goalpara districts over the past several months.
As a matter of fact, in the past five months, a herd of elephants has, time and again, created panic among residents of the Boko area under the Singra and Bondapara Forest Range Offices.
Early on Friday morning, a boy, Sanjay Das, was injured in the Boko area by a wild elephant. He is currently undergoing treatment at GMCH.