Woman dragged on street, trampled to death by wild elephant

New Delhi, Sep 26: A 65-year-old woman was trampled to death by a wild elephant at a village in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district on Monday, a forest official said.

The victim, Pyari Toppo, came face to face with an elephant when she stepped out of her house in Babu Saajbahar village under Tapkara forest range, in the morning, sub-divisional officer (forest) Naveen Nirala said.

The elephant caught hold of the woman with its trunk and dragged her on the street before trampling her to death, he said.

The forest personnel were alerted and the body was shifted to a hospital for post-mortem, he said, according to news agency PTI.

The woman's relatives were provided an instant relief of ₹ 25,000, while the remaining compensation of ₹ 5.75 lakh will be disbursed once the necessary formalities are completed, the official said.

A herd of 14 elephants had recently entered the Tapkara range from neighbouring Odisha and locals have been alerted, he added.

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

Human-elephant conflicts in the northern part of the state had been a major cause of concern for the last one decade and the menace has further spread to some districts of the central region.

Incidents of elephant attacks have been reported in Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur, Gariaband, Jashpur, and Balrampur districts.