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Guwahati, Oct 27 : Three people have been trampled to death and two more wounded in a drunken rout by wild elephants in India's northeastern state of Assam.
Wildlife officials said Wednesday that a herd of about a dozen elephants went amok after drinking rice beer Tuesday in Marongi, a tribal village 290 km east of Assam's main city of Guwahati.
"After entering the village the elephants first guzzled locally made rice beer kept in drums and then went on a rampage, killing three people, including a woman," the official said.
Two villagers injured in the attack were shifted to hospital with multiple wounds.
During the past fortnight, herds of wild elephants have been wreaking havoc in several parts of eastern Assam, especially in villages where tribal people brew large volumes of rice beer.
"There have been several incidents of elephants drinking country liquor and then going berserk, at times plundering granaries and tearing apart huts, besides inflicting fatal attacks on human beings," noted elephant expert Kushal Konwar Sharma told IANS.
Experts say wild elephants have been moving out of the jungles with people encroaching upon animal corridors leading to an increasing number of elephant attacks on villages.
"A shrinking forest cover and encroachment of elephant corridors have forced the pachyderms to stray out of their habitats into human settlement areas," said Assam Forest Minister Pradyut Bordoloi.
Earlier, villagers drove away marauding herds by beating drums or bursting firecrackers. But as elephants increasingly stray into human habitat, the conflict has egged villagers to poison the animals.
In the last five years, elephants have killed at least 150 people in Assam.
Angry villagers, in turn, have killed up to 200 of the animals during the same period, some of which were brought down with poisoned-tipped arrows.
The minister said 27 elephants had been poisoned to death across Assam in the past three years with villagers, harassed by raids on their farms by wild elephants looking for food, were believed to have killed the animals.
Forensic experts later confirmed presence of a highly toxic pesticide on the elephant carcasses.
"The villagers, to avoid depredation, possibly mixed the pesticide with rice beer that the elephants guzzled," an elephant expert said.
The last elephant census in 1999 recorded 5,400 elephants in Assam, more than half of India's count of 10,000.
From here
Wildlife officials said Wednesday that a herd of about a dozen elephants went amok after drinking rice beer Tuesday in Marongi, a tribal village 290 km east of Assam's main city of Guwahati.
"After entering the village the elephants first guzzled locally made rice beer kept in drums and then went on a rampage, killing three people, including a woman," the official said.
Two villagers injured in the attack were shifted to hospital with multiple wounds.
During the past fortnight, herds of wild elephants have been wreaking havoc in several parts of eastern Assam, especially in villages where tribal people brew large volumes of rice beer.
"There have been several incidents of elephants drinking country liquor and then going berserk, at times plundering granaries and tearing apart huts, besides inflicting fatal attacks on human beings," noted elephant expert Kushal Konwar Sharma told IANS.
Experts say wild elephants have been moving out of the jungles with people encroaching upon animal corridors leading to an increasing number of elephant attacks on villages.
"A shrinking forest cover and encroachment of elephant corridors have forced the pachyderms to stray out of their habitats into human settlement areas," said Assam Forest Minister Pradyut Bordoloi.
Earlier, villagers drove away marauding herds by beating drums or bursting firecrackers. But as elephants increasingly stray into human habitat, the conflict has egged villagers to poison the animals.
In the last five years, elephants have killed at least 150 people in Assam.
Angry villagers, in turn, have killed up to 200 of the animals during the same period, some of which were brought down with poisoned-tipped arrows.
The minister said 27 elephants had been poisoned to death across Assam in the past three years with villagers, harassed by raids on their farms by wild elephants looking for food, were believed to have killed the animals.
Forensic experts later confirmed presence of a highly toxic pesticide on the elephant carcasses.
"The villagers, to avoid depredation, possibly mixed the pesticide with rice beer that the elephants guzzled," an elephant expert said.
The last elephant census in 1999 recorded 5,400 elephants in Assam, more than half of India's count of 10,000.
From here
