Tura, March 5: A biker riding through Selsella road in West Garo Hills was attacked by wild elephants and trampled to death on Monday night.
The 42 year old victim, Jineng M Sangma, belonged to Garobadha-Mukdangra area’s Asibela village.
He had reportedly gone to Selsella with another relative to broker a deal for purchase of a vehicle and was returning late last night when the incident happened.
As both of them were passing through the Selsella road on two separate bikes, they suddenly came across the elephants on the road.
While one of them managed to get away from the spot, the 42 year was attacked and killed on the spot.
His relative alerted villagers and the authorities and later recovered the body from the spot.
With their natural habitat fast disappearing due to human activities, wild elephants have been moving closer to human habitation in search of food during the annual dry season.
This is the first death from an elephant attack this year. Last year, several villagers lost their lives to similar incidents, particularly in South Garo Hills and South West Garo Hills areas where elephants frequently cross over from neighbouring Bangladesh after being chased away by villagers.
Outside of Tura also, another wild herd has been spotted in the vicinity of Sonampara village keeping wild life staff on emergency standby.
To make matters worse, false alarms by some people make patrolling by wildlife teams difficult.
“Our teams are keeping a watch whereever elephant sightings are reported. But many a times we get false reports which stretches the teams because they have to rush there only to find it to be false,” inform Rupankar Marak, Wildlife DFO of West Garo Hills.
In recent days, reports claiming elephant intrusion in Tura’s Wadanang area (near ABC guest house) and even Abri Nido resort, Rongkhon Songgital area, have been verified by wildlife teams to have been false.
“So far the only autheticated report of wild elephants presence outside Tura was in the Sonampara area,” clarified DFO Marak as he appealed to public to first verify with authorities.
