HT Correspondent
DIBRUGARH, Nov 13: In a tragic incident, a 48-year-old man was trampled to death by a wild elephant at Abhaypur village under Namrup police station in Dibrugarh on Saturday evening.
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The deceased has been identified as Nandeswar Gogoi.
According to reports, Nandeswar Gogoi was returning from Namrup market around 9 pm when he encountered a wild elephant on the road, and was chased by the elephant and later trampled to death.
Local residents said the elephants strayed out of the Jeypore reserve forest in search of food and entered into human habitation.
“We are helpless because most of the times, the wild elephants come out from the Jeypore reserve forest in search of food and enter our villages. We have urged the forest department to take steps to stop the depredation of wild elephants,” said a villager.
The elephants from Jeypore reserve forest frequently move to Assam-Arunachal border and its surrounding periphery.
The deceased’s brother has requested the Assam government to give the victim’s family some compensation and to take the responsibility of educating the children.
“Man-elephant conflict has been rising rapidly due to shrinking forest cover. We urge the government to solve the problem,” he said.
Devojit Moran, environmental activist said, “Due to shrinking of forest cover man-elephant conflict has been rising. The forest department should work in coordination with villagers to stop the conflict. The wild elephants frequently entered villages in search of food during the winter season. Most of the times, the elephant herd destroyed the crop field and the poor farmer tried different techniques to stop the elephant depredation which resulted in conflict.”
Pushpadhar Buragohain, range officer of Jeypore said, “We have sent the body for post mortem. As a procedure, the family will get compensation. The elephant comes out from Jeypore reserve forest which is adjacent to the village.”
