Wild elephants trample tracker to death in Andhra

Visakhapatnam, Feb 7 (IANS) A herd of wild elephants trampled to death a tracker in Andhra Pradesh's Parvathipuram Manyam district, officials said.

Lakshminarayan (26), who was trying to prevent tuskers from entering a village, died on the spot. The incident occurred on Monday night on the outskirts of Pasikudi village in Parvathipuram Manyam district.

The youth, who was working with the forest department on a contract basis, was trying to prevent the herd of elephants from entering cotton fields in the village.

According to forest officials, using a fire torch, he tried to drive the tuskers towards the Vamsadhara river. The jumbos, however, charged at him forcing him to run for cover. The herd trampled him after he fell on the ground.

Lakshminarayan, a resident of Srikakulam district, died on the spot. Villagers in the region were panicked by the incident.

Senior forest officials rushed to the spot and assured people that steps will be taken to control the wild elephants, which have been creating havoc in the region for the last few weeks.

This is the second death caused by the wild elephants in the district in three months. A farmer was trampled to death by a wild tusker in Kallikota village in the same district in November last year. The 48-year-old farmer had gone to his farm field to take stock of the water level there when a lone elephant attacked him and trampled him to death.