Saturday, February 18, 2017

‘Musth’ jumbo kills one in North Andaman

In a tragic incident, a member of the Ranchi community was killed by a ‘musth’ elephant in a remote hamlet in North Andaman region on Monday. The victim, Julius Lakra, was carrying out some household chores in the jungles near his home when the tusker appeared from the bushes, tossed him in the air before crushing him to death at around 2.30 pm, according to sources.

Speaking to this correspondent, the Divisional Forest Officer of Diglipur confirmed the incident. “The Forest Division here was informed about the incident and a team was rushed to the accident at 4 pm. The site is remotely located and it normally takes around 90 minutes to reach the spot in the forest reserve area from either Pan Nallah or Ganesh Nagar. We’re awaiting complete reports about the incident and necessary steps will be taken accordingly,” the DFO informed.

A lack management of elephants engaged by the Department of Environment of Forest and Forest Corporation has generated criticism for the agencies in the recent years. On the 29th of July 2014, a ‘musth’ Tusker killed a forest official, Kalidas, after going berserk in the Mohanpur region in North Andaman.  An assistant mahout was also killed in June 2014 by the elephant he tamed in the Burma Duba beat in Tugapur-5 at Mayabunder. Another forest worker named Nagen Halder, was also killed by an elephant in the Bongaon range at Bakultala in Middle Andaman in the month of August 2013.

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