Guwahati: A 35-year-old man was trampled to death by wild elephants near Rani Reserve Forest, on the outskirts of Guwahati, late Sunday night. The deceased, Rajib Boro, was the convener of Shakti Kendra, Rani Mandal of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Boro was killed by the herd of wild elephants at around 12.10 am at Andhrijuli village near the reserve forest.
Personnel of the forest department soon rushed to the spot on receipt of information.
Police officials from the Rani Police Outpost too arrived at the spot, and after verification, confirmed that the man was killed by wild elephants.
The police later sent the victim’s body to the Rani Community Health Centre for post-mortem.
Meanwhile, Minister for Environment and Forest, Parimal Suklabaidya has deeply mourned the death of the villager, who was also a BJP worker.
At least 812 people have died in Assam in the last 10 years due to the human-elephant conflict.
Udalguri district reported the most casualties with 115 deaths, followed by Sonitpur with 103, Goalpara with 74, and Darrang with 51 deaths.
The Assam government has taken a number of steps to reduce the human-animal conflict in the state.
In order to address the human-elephant conflict, local officials have been urged to organize volunteer organizations that may work together to prevent animal damage.
The World Wild Fund (WWF) has been hired to train the Village Defense Party (VDP) on how to reduce human-elephant conflict.
(Inputs from PTI)
