Guwahati: Wild elephants continue to wreak havoc in Assam, with three persons, including a picnicker trampled to death by marauding herds in separate incidents on the last Sunday of the year.
In the first incident, two villagers were trampled to death, reportedly by one from a herd that entered human habitation, apparently in search of food, in the Sonari area of Upper Assam’s Charaideo district on Sunday night.
The deceased have been identified as Bikash Tanti and Gobind Tanti.
Official sources said a few huts were also destroyed by the marauding elephant in the incident that took place on the night of December 25.
In the other incident, a herd of wild elephants trampled to death one person who was among a group of picnickers, at Amsoi Shiva Kunda in central Assam’s Nagaon district.
Reportedly, the herd had descended on the picnic spot from the Shiva Kunda hills. While one picnicker was trampled to death, the others escaped unhurt.
Incidents of human-elephant conflicts have been rising at an alarming rate in Assam.
Rampant destruction of forest cover, human encroachment on elephant mkigration corridors, construction of houses and various other reasons have contributed to the rise in human-elephant conflicts in the district.
According to official records, in the past 10 years, human-elephant conflicts have claimed about 800 human lives in Assam and around 250 pachyderms.
In western Assam’s Goalpara, a district highly prone to human-elephant conflicts, as many as 25 persons have died this year while seven elephants have lost their lives, reportedly by way of food poisoning.
On December 15, four persons, including a child, were killed in separate incidents of attacks by pachyderms in Goalpara district.
Besides, two persons were injured after they were attacked by a wild elephant at Rangjuli in Goalpara district on the same day.
In the first incident on December 15, a herd of wild elephants attacked three vehicles plying on national highway 12 in the Lakhipur area, killing three persons, including a minor, on the spot.
In the other incident, a forest worker was killed in an attack by wild elephants when he was returning home from work in the Sholmari area of Goalpara district.