Woman trampled to death by elephant

Maya Murmu was collecting water from a tubewell in Raipal village on Thursday morning when she was attacked by a wild tusker who strayed from the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, according to India Narrative.

The elephant trampled her, following which she was taken to a hospital where she succumbed to her injuries, Rasgovindpur police station inspector Lopamudra Nayak said.

In the evening, when the family members of the deceased were performing her last rites, the tusker arrived there suddenly and took the corpse from the pyre.

The number of elephants getting killed by trains has been increasing at an alarming level in India over the past few years.

In May 2021, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had said that a total of 186 elephants were killed after being hit by trains across India between 2009-10 and 2020-21.

According to the data by the Project Elephant Division of the Ministry, Assam accounted for the highest number of elephant casualties on railway tracks (62), followed by West Bengal (57), and Odisha (27).

In August 2021, two elephants – a female and her male offspring were killed by a train in Uttarakhand’s Kumaon region, following which the herd held up the movement of trains for hours.