A 45-year-old guard, deployed at a government paddy collection centre was killed by wild elephants in Chhattisgarh's Gariaband district on Wednesday, a forest official said.
The victim who died in the horrific incident was identified as Gyanchand. He was attacked by the elephants in the wee hours when he was on duty at the facility located in Kundel village under Fingeshwar police station area, about 80 km from the state capital Raipur, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Gariaband Mayank Agrawal said.
At least 14 people were present at the paddy collection centre when the herd of wild elephants in search of food moved towards the paddy centre, he said.
On seeing the wild elephants, 13 people safely escaped from the scene.
Meanwhile, the watchman failed to move out of the facility and the elephants caught hold of him with their trunks and trampled him to death, the DFO added.
Forest and police personnel rushed to the spot in the morning after being alerted and sent the body for post-mortem, he said.
The kin of the deceased were provided an instant relief of Rs 25,000, he said, adding that the elephants were still roaming in the area and villagers were alerted.
In the past, several incidents of human-elephant conflict were reported from the thick forested areas of Surguja, Surajpur, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur, Balrampur, Korea and Gariaband districts in the state.