As elephants kill in Assam, blame on ‘Laden’

Around 3.30 am on June 1, at village Patpara Pahartoli, adjacent to a forest area in Assam’s Goalpara district, Manoj Hajong (25) and his brother Bidyadhar Hajong (28) were woken up by shouts that there was an elephant outside their hut.

The Hajong brothers rushed outside to see a lone elephant, about 9 feet in height and without a tusk, walking away after eating the rice crop kept in the verandah of the hut.

Manoj, a driver by profession, sprinted behind the elephant to chase it away, Bidyadhar on his toes. At the same time, three young neighbours of the Hajongs — armed with sticks which held lit jute twines — ran towards the elephant from the other side.

Trapped, the furious elephant turned, let out a cry and sprang towards Manoj. It threw Manoj to the ground, crushed him and went off towards the forest. Bidyadhar ran out of its way.

“I saw Manoj die… what could I do? It was ‘Laden’. Had I tried to do anything which offended the giant, I would not have been alive today. We call it ‘Laden’ because people get paralysed with fear when they see him attacking,” says Bidyadhar, who is a farmer.

The elephant he is talking about is around the same age, and Goalpara district’s only loner elephant. Over two years and the 300 sq km of forest area he is rumoured to operate in, ‘Laden’ is accused of killing several people and damaging huts. Villagers in the affected areas do not know much about Osama bin Laden or al-Qaeda. What they do know is that ‘Laden’ stands for “someone who scares”.

Since 2016, Goalpara district officials have attributed 20-25 deaths to elephant trampling. This year, they have listed eight. Every other day in the past few weeks, ‘Laden’ has hit the headlines in the local press for his “atrocities”.

But several forest and district administration officials as well as experts say it is unlikey ‘Laden’ is responsible for all he is accused of. “No doubt this elephant has killed people, but so have elephants in herds. He is targeted by public because his atrocities are prominent,” says Goalpara Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) A Goswami.


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Elephant tramples woman to death in Tirunelveli

TIRUNELVELI: A 35-year-old woman died following an elephant attack in a temple festival in Tirunelveli in tge early hours of Sunday. Police said the jumbo trampled the woman when she tried to touch it, as part of worship.
Police have identified the victims as M Badrakali of Uchimakaliamman Street in Nalumavadi, Tuticorin district. The jumbo from Alwarthirunagari was brought to the temple festival in Sudalai Temple in Seevalaperi, Tirunelveli. According to the police many devotees from nearby districts also used to come to the festival that goes throughout the night. This gives good business for the temporary shops that are setup near the temple. Badrakali was one of them. It is learnt that the elephant was tied to a place near the temple after the celebrations. Police sources said that around 3.50 am the woman tried to touch the elephant and worship when the animal grew wild and attacked her. The badly injured woman was rescued and rushed to the Tirunelveli Medical College and Hospital and was undergoing intensive care.

Meanwhile veterinarians will check the health parameters of the elephant and conduct an inquiry with the temple authorities and persons available there to understand the reason behind the tragic incident.

This is the second incident of elephant trampling a person to death at a temple festival in this region in less than a month. On March 24 an elephant trampled its mahout Sameer, 25, to death during the festival in the Badrakaliamman temple in Vellachiparai in Kanyakumari district.

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