MANOJ SINHA
Ramgarh, Dec.20: A herd of 12 elephants trampled three members of a family to death at Itij village under Keredari block of Hazaribagh district. Sources said that the elephants entered the village in search of food grains late on Sunday night.
The herd entered the house of a villager named Ramvriksha Ram Singh Bhuiyan while he and his family were asleep. The elephants crushed and killed his wife Rohini Devi (40 years), son Mukesh Kumar (12 years) and daughter Sundari Kumari (10 years).
In the incident, Ramvriksha was also seriously injured along with two more people. They are currently being treated at Sadar Hospital. The family that was the victim of the attack is a resident of Manatu village. They are here to work on the brick kiln.
The inhabitants of the village gathered around the home after hearing the elephants’ sounds. The elephants had already assaulted the family and the house by that time. They had completely destroyed the house as well. The event was reported to the local police and forest department by the residents of the village.
The police team arrived at the location after receiving the information. The bodies of one woman and two children were sent for postmortem.
Following the incident, the villagers are enraged by the forest department’s behaviour. They claim that the herd has been roaming in the populous area for the past two days. Villagers are trying to get them out of the village from their level and that the forest department is not of much help to them.