Wild tuskers kill another man in Rampur, claiming 5th victim

RAMPUR: Two lost wild tuskers running amok for the past 21 days killed another person at Chandpur Qadeem village under the jurisdiction of Shahzadnagar police station in Rampur late on Sunday evening. The jumbos had entered Rampur district on Saturday from adjoining Bareilly district . This is the fifth death caused by these elephants as they had earlier killed two persons in Bareilly and one each in Rampur and Rudrapur in Uttarakhand .

The jumbos attacked one Raju Yadav, who was returning home from work on his bicycle. According to village residents, Raju was not aware of the presence of the wild elephants in the village. He unwittingly came close to them on the road near his house and was killed.

The villagers demanded compensation for the bereaved family from the state government. Rampur DM Aunjaneya Kumar Singh had assured all the possible help to Raju’s family.

A fortnight ago, the wild tuskers had killed a person identified as Baijnath in Bilaspur tehsil and injured two others identified as Lakhwinder Singh and Shalendra Bala.

Raju’s uncle Veer Singh Yadav accused forest department staff of misleading villagers by saying that the elephants had moved away from the village and leaving themselves for the night.

SHO, Shahzadnagar, Amar Singh said the elephants had moved towards Peepal Sana village, near Uttarakhand border, on Monday. The Laggabagga forest lies in the border area.

Foresters in UP have been trying to use the push-and-pull process with the help of three cow elephants from Dudhwa to move the bull elephants into Uttarakhand.

Divisional forest officer, Rampur, AK Kashyap said, Foresters had installed loudspeakers on their vehicles and were going around all villages situated within 10-km radius of Peepal Sana, telling villagers keep away from their fields for safety. Similar announcements were also made from local mosques on Monday.