By IANS
Guwahati : Wild Asiatic elephants trampled to death four sleeping villagers of a family in Assam, the latest in a series of attacks on humans, wildlife officials said Sunday.
A forest official said a herd of about a dozen elephants Saturday entered Uttarkuchi village in Baksa district, about 90 km west of Guwahati.
“The elephants went berserk, smashed a village hut, and killed the entire family of four, including two children,” the official said.
Forest rangers later chased the herd using firecrackers. “Probably the elephants entered the village looking for food,” he added.
During the past fortnight, herds of wild elephants have been wreaking havoc in several parts of Assam, especially in villages where tribal people brew large volumes of rice beer.
Experts say wild elephants have been moving out of the jungles in search of food with people encroaching upon animal corridors leading to an increasing number of elephant attacks on villages.
Elephants have killed 248 people in Assam in the past five years while 268 elephants have died during the same period, many of them victims of retaliation by angry humans, said a wildlife department report released last month.
Villagers often poison the marauding elephants while in the past they drove them away by beating drums or bursting firecrackers.
Assam has India’s largest population of Asiatic elephants, estimated at around 5,300, according to a wildlife census in 2002.