Wild Tusker Attacks Car, Kills Man on Highway Near Morigaon

GUWAHATI: In a tragic incident, a man was killed when a wild elephant damaged the car he was travelling in from Guwahati to Tezpur on Saturday night, and attacked him.

The incident occurred near Roumari village in Laharighat sub-division of Morigaon district, on NH 37. The wild elephant is said to have got separated from its herd while crossing the highway.

According to reports, the victim Debashish Bhattacharjee stopped his car on seeing the elephant and waited for it to cross the highway. However, the elephant supposedly got disturbed by the headlight and car engine noise and charged towards the standing car, damaging the bonnet and windshield with its trunk, before proceeding to attack Bhattacharjee, who was driving the car.

Bhattacharjee sustained severe injuries and was rushed to a nearby hospital. But the doctors there declared him brought dead.

Nagaon DFO Bhaskar Deka said, "For the last couple of days, an elephant herd, which came from Sonaikuchi Reserve Forest, has been moving about in the area in search of food. Their movement is very frequent during the harvesting period."

He went on to say, "Our forest patrolling team monitors elephants' movement every single day. Normally, we track their movement between 6 pm and 7.30pm. But on Saturday, they crossed the highway at 5.30pm and attacked the vehicle around that time."

Earlier, on September 18, a man was trampled to death and five others were critically injured by a herd of wild elephants in Assam's Baksa district. The incident happened at Khairani village of the district late on the night of September 18.

The deceased was identified as Ravindra Boro. The five injured people were Dhanpati Boro, Anil Daimary, Paresh Boro, Thengona Musahari, and Sulendra Boro.

The villagers said a herd of wild elephants from the nearby forest entered the area in search of food. The local residents tried to frighten them so that they return to the jungle but, the jumbos attacked them instead.

Such incidents occur frequently in the state in recent times as wild elephants venture out of the forests in search of food and enter the paddy fields. Inhabitants of the area then try to chase away the elephants and sometimes the tables are turned when the herd attacks them instead. Human- elephant conflict has assumed dangerous proportions in the state and solutions are being devised by concerned individuals and NGOs to minimise it.

Also read: Assam: Climate Change Poses Threat of Extinction to State Bird

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