Jamshedpur: A forest department officer was killed and another sustained injuries when a team out on patrol to help villagers was attacked by a herd of elephants, who had apparently consumed country liquor, at Balidih forest in Dhunaburu village under Chowka police station area in Chandil range area in adjoining Seraikela-Kharswan district on Wednesday night.
Chandil range officer Ashok Kumar said an elephant in the herd of five trampled on Haricharan Mahato (45) and seriously injured Durgacharan Mahato, who is in his early forties. “Haricharan was the leader of the team that was formed to drive away the elephants from the foothills. Durgacharan, also a part of the team, is recuperating at Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur,” he said.
Kumar said the team had gone to the village on receiving a call from the villagers that a herd of elephants had attacked the hamlet, damaging houses and destroying food grains stored in sacks. “The team rushed to the village and tried to make the herd retreat, but the elephant attacked the foresters. An elephant trampled on Haricharan while Durgacharan suffered injuries when he tried to rescue his team leader,” he said.
“I suspect the elephant that attacked our team had consumed mahua (country liquor),” Kumar said, adding that elephants herd normally do not attack teams of rangers that are trained to drive them back into forests.
Chowka police station in-charge Satyaveer Singh said an investigation will be conducted to ascertain the exact cause of the incident. Incidentally, three persons have died in elephant attacks in the Chandil and Kharaswan forest range in the last six months.