Rampaging elephant kills seven Indian villagers
Pastor Dale Morgan
Rampaging elephant kills seven Indian villagers*
* Haroon Siddique and agencies
* guardian.co.uk,
* Thursday May 29 2008
An elephant rampaged through a village in northern India today killing
at least seven people and injuring 24 before being shot dead, a wildlife
official said.
The female elephant entered Bhudaheda on the edge of the Jim Corbett
national park, Uttarakhand state, and began destroying crops, Srikant
Chandola, the park's chief wildlife officer, said.
Villagers tried to frighten it away by beating drums but the animal then
started trampling people, he said.
Belinda Wright, the director of the Wildlife Protection Society of
India, said the elephant had apparently become separated from its herd.
It went berserk after being surrounded by screaming villagers.
A member of her group had seen police, forest officials and villagers
fire more than 100 bullets at the elephant, though it was not clear how
many hit it.
The park, one of India's most popular, is about 370 miles (600km) east
of Delhi.
There have been a number of recent incidents in which villagers have
been killed by animals roaming further for food because of the decline
of their natural habitats.
India's national parks also suffer encroachment from people who live and
forage for food or graze their cattle in the forests.