Assam: Jumbo Tramples Dead 8 Year-Old Assam Girl In Baksa, 10-Year-Old Sister Critical

GUWAHATI: An eight-year-old girl was trampled to death while her 10-year-old sister was critically injured during sleep by a wild elephant in lower Assam’s Baksa district early on Sunday morning, forest officials said.

Sunday’s jumbo attack was the latest in the series of such human-elephant conflicts in Assam which have mainly been said to happen due to depredation of elephant habitats.

Forest officials said the incident took place in Deochunga village under Goreswar police station of Baksa district which comes under the administrative control of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).

Baksa divisional forest officer Prabodh Kumar Brahma said a lone jumbo, which somehow got separated from its herd, attacked the house where the two sisters lived. “The attack happened at 5.15 am when the sisters and their family members were sleeping. The elephant razed their kutcha house and the eight-year-old, identified as Birgwsri Daimary, died on the spot,” Brahma reported to media.

Only the parents amongst members of the four-member family had a narrow escape, Forest officials said. Even while their elder daughter is being treated at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), where the doctors reportedly said she is stable but critical.

According to Forest officials, many villagers in these areas of Baksa are apprehensive of more such jumbo attacks from herds coming out of the Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary and the reserve forests contiguous to it.

Recently, besides Baksa, lower Assam districts like Kamrup and Goalpara are witnessing increasing man-elephant conflicts in the last week. Forest officials said the elephants start intruding into human habitations lured by the smell of fresh fruits and vegetables that grow in the spring, before the monsoon hits.

Over 70 deaths have been reported annually in the last seven years mostly involving elephants. Moreover, forest department said they have documented attacks on over 900 people in elephant attacks in Assam in the past 10 years.

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