Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The two elephants, which killed at least three persons in the radius of around fifteen kilometers in Shahdol of Madhya Pradesh, have reached the jungle area of Sanjay Tiger Reserve.
A forest team constituted to capture them is making efforts to tranquilise them, but till the writing of this story, success eluded the team.
A Shahdol-based forest officer told The Free Press that the team is making efforts to capture both elephants and send them back to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, but the team was yet to catch either of the elephants. Tranquilliser guns will be used to catch them.
These elephants were on their way to Sanjay Tiger Reserve from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve on Monday morning when they encountered a large number of villagers plucking tendu patta in forest areas. They ran amok and attacked the villagers. In their attack, three persons, including a lady, were killed. Both elephants have literally trampled all three victims.
There is a kind of rage among the villagers against the incident. On Monday itself, the CM had announced ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh to the family of each victim.
This is the second big such incident after two elephants killed two villagers in Bandhavgarh last year. Though Madhya Pradesh forest officials are working on a scheme to control the elephant-human conflict, all its preparations have fallen flat yet once again.
