(IN): Dutch tourist killed by Kaziranga jumbo

[Guest guest]

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090408/jsp/frontpage/story_10791485.jsp#

 

Dutch tourist killed by Kaziranga jumbo

OUR CORRESPONDENT

 

*Guwahati, April 7: *A Dutch tourist was trampled to death by a wild

elephant at Kaziranga National Park today after insisting on staying and

clicking pictures while his friends and guide moved away from the animal.

 

Robert William Goldbrach, 55, was visiting the national park, 250km east of

Guwahati, with eight other foreign tourists — four British, three Dutch and

an Australian — including a woman.

 

They were walking through Kaziranga’s Panbari reserve forest — a draw for

birdwatchers but home also to the ape species hoolock gibbon — with a guide

and an armed forest guard when they ran into a wild *makhana *(young male

elephant).

 

“We’d started around 6.30am. The foreigners were thrilled to spot an Asian

paradise flycatcher, a rare bird species. Around 9, we suddenly saw a huge

elephant just 10 metres away. It was staring at us and I sensed trouble,”

guide Abidur Rahman said.

 

Rahman, who has been a guide for four years, said he asked everyone to leave

the spot but an excited Goldbrach insisted on taking snapshots first. “The

guard, Subash Senapati, stayed with him as I moved away with the others,”

Rahman said. When about 30 metres from the spot, he heard gunshots.

 

Senapati said the elephant had charged at them a few minutes after the

others had left. “I fired three bullets in the air but it kept charging at

us. I ran away shouting at the tourist to run, too,” he said.

 

“Then I heard a sound as though the elephant was crashing into trees. Then I

heard screams. When I ran back, I saw the tourist’s lifeless body tangled up

in the creepers between two trees.”

 

Wildlife expert Mrinal Chatterjee of the Institute of Climbers and Nature

Lovers said wild elephants could be unpredictable and one mustn’t take any

chances with them. “The tourist should have immediately followed the guide’s

instructions. From my experience, I can say the close human presence must

have provoked the elephant.”

 

In 1998, Mary Brumder, an 80-year-old tourist from the US, had died in

Kaziranga after getting trapped in a fight between two elephants that were

ferrying tourists.

 

Kaziranga director S.N. Buragohain said Goldbrach was carrying an “ordinary

digital camera” and did not appear to be a professional photographer. He

said he didn’t expect tourist arrivals to be affected. “It was an accident….

(Accidents) are not uncommon in the wilds.” He added that foreigners made up

30,000-35,000 of the 80,000 visitors at the park every year.

 

A tea garden labourer, Meena Thengal, 40, was later killed by a wild

elephant near the Numaligarh Refinery, 20km away. Forest officials were

unsure if it was the same elephant.

 

--

http://www.stopelephantpolo.com

http://www.freewebs.com/azamsiddiqui