Teenager Trampled To Death By Wild Elephant Near UP's Dudhwa Reserve While Clicking A Photo
In a tragic incident, a teenager was trampled to death by a wild elephant in UP¡¯s Lakhimpur Kheri district on Thursday afternoon.
The victim, identified as 17-year-old Mangat Singh, son of a local farmer was trying to take a photo of an elephant herd with his phone in the buffer forests of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.
What happened?
Singh was killed on the spot. According to officials the herd had been camping in Dalrajpur and its neighbouring village Taparpurva since earlier this week and had destroyed standing sugarcane crop and banana trees in the area.
This is the latest incident of human-animal conflict, which has been on the rise in the area.
In a related incident, a video has surfaced, showing an unidentified person opening fire at a tusker that had a narrow escape.
The elephant, however, went berserk, uprooting an electric pole and destroying sugarcane crop. Officials claimed that the video was shot before the tusker killed the youth.
Deputy director, DTR (buffer), Anil Patel said that they have sent a team to the village to monitor the situation.
"We are trying to push the herd into the wild. Besides, we will also investigate whether the bullet was fired in the air or aimed at the elephant," he said.
On Wednesday, the partly eaten body of a 52 farmer who was missing since Monday was, recovered from the Mailani range forests, under the Dudhwa buffer zone.
Gone to fields to collect fodder
The victim, Asha Ram had been reported missing since Monday afternoon when he had gone to the fields on his bicycle to collect fodder for his domestic animals.
Mailani range forest officials and Sansarpur police outpost in-charge Pravin Kumar rushed to the spot.
Dr Anil Kumar Patel, deputy director of Dudhwa buffer zone, confirmed that Asha Ram was killed by a tiger.
He said that the pug marks have been detected on the spot. The area is known for the movement of big cats, and appropriate action would be taken in this case. The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination.
The area is part of a wildlife corridor between Mohammadi range and Mailani range, which has been disturbed due to human encroachment, said foresters.
On October 11, a wild elephant had killed a youth while he was attempting to take a selfie in the Mohammadi range of the Reserve.
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