Man killed in elephant attack in Chhattisgarh

Dhamtari, Jun 29 (PTI) A 35-year-old man was trampled to death by a wild elephant at a village in Chhattisgarh's Dhamtari district, a forest official said on Sunday.
    The attack occurred on Saturday evening in Lilar village under the Dhamtari forest range when the victim, Devcharan Nishad, was heading to a farm with another villager, the official said.
    He said the duo spotted the animal, and while the other man managed to flee, the elephant picked him Nishad and trampled him to death.
    After being alerted about the incident, forest personnel reached the spot and sent the body for post-mortem, the official said.
    He said an immediate aid of Rs 25,000 was provided to the kin of the deceased, and the remaining compensation will be disbursed once the necessary formalities are completed.
    Teams from the forest department have been keeping a tab on the movement of the elephant and alerting locals, he said.
    Human-elephant conflicts in the northern part of the state have been a cause for concern for the last decade, while the menace has further spread its footprint in some districts of the central region in the past few years.
    The districts which have been facing the menace mainly are Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur, Mahasamund, Dhamtari, Gariaband, Balod, Balrampur and Kanker.
    According to the forest department, more than 320 people have been killed in elephant attacks in the state in five years.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)