RANCHI: At least six people, including four members of a family, were trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants in a village in Jharkhand's Hazaribag district on Friday when the people tried to flee, a forest officer said.
The herd, which had attacked several people over the last few days, entered Gondwar village in Churchu block on Thursday night and trampled six people to death early on February 13, Hazaribag East Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Vikas Kumar Ujjwal told PTI.
"Among those killed were four members of a family. One child was also seriously injured," Ujjwal said.
The child has been admitted to the Sadar Hospital in Hazaribag, he said.
The group of jumbos had been roaming in Bokaro, Ramgarh and Hazaribag districts for the past few days and had earlier caused casualties in Bokaro, Ujjwal added.
"We had alerted villagers through the public address system as the herd entered the block. Unfortunately, when people tried to flee from their houses, six of them were trampled to death," he said.
Poonam Devi, one of the relatives of the deceased, said that two of the children were left alone when the elephants came and trampled them.
The process of providing compensation of Rs four lakh each to the kin of the victims has been initiated, another official said.
A quick response team has also been deployed to drive out the herd from the block.
The forest officials visited the affected villagers in Churchu Block and met the family members of those killed.
The officials said Rs 25,000 each has been paid to the kin of the victims for funeral arrangements.
Hazaribag MP Manish Jaiswal termed the incident tragic and alleged that illegal mining in the areas has also resulted in the man-animal conflict.
The local legislators said they would raise the issue in the upcoming assembly session seeking a solution to the problem.
A herd of five elephants earlier this month trampled to death three elderly members of a family and injured a woman in Bokaro. In January, a rogue elephant killed 13 people in two days in separate attacks in West Singhbhum district, creating panic in the region.
Residents of several villages in Jharkhand are sleeping on rooftops, crowding into concrete houses and forming night watch groups to escape attacks by wild elephants.
As per forest officials, mining, development work and destruction of forest corridors have pushed elephants into human settlements in search of food.