Wild jumbo tramples woman to death

A Correspondent

GOALPARA, June 17: Contrary to the popular belief that the man-elephant conflict will decrease after the harvesting period, the wild elephant menace is continuing in Goalpara. The death toll this year has risen to eight. On the wee hours of Saturday at Phoolguri village near Sarapara under Matia police station, a woman was trampled to death when trying to escape from her house for fear of elephant attack. Tilottoma Nath (50), a widow, tried to leave her house when the jumbo had entered her village. In the process of running away, she came directly in front of the tusker which immediately killed her by trampling her.

The locals doubted this to be the work of the male elephant nicknamed ‘Laden’ which has already taken more than five lives. However, B. Das, range forest officer of Rongjuli, clearly denied it. He informed, “After receiving an information about two elephants entering the village, we were on duty on Saturday night. About 1:50am one elephant broke the wall of the woman’s house which led her to make an escape. But she was caught and trampled.”