Elephant crushes man to save new born calf

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http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IEP20030913120501&Title=States&rLink=0

 

IANS

 

KOLKATA: An elephant that was guarding her newborn calf from a hostile crowd crushed a man to death in a village in West Bengal in eastern India.

 

The elephant, which gave birth on the edge of a village in the jungles of Goaldanga in Bankura district Friday, was joined in her vigil by two male elephants, as she waited for the calf to stand on its legs.

 

The vigil lasted two days, during which the villagers of Goaldanga got wind of it and soon a crowd of about 1,500 people gathered around, local newspapers reported.

 

The unfriendly crowd beat drums and burst firecrackers around the elephants and also threw stones.

 

When the crowd advanced towards the baby elephant, its mother charged at the crowd and lifting an old man in its trunk, crushed him under its massive feet.

 

The furious animal then kicked around the dead man, identified as 70-year-old Fatik Mondal, as forest guards stood around helplessly.

 

Wild elephants have killed 252 people in the state in the last five years, and 122 of the animals have also died, many allegedly poisoned by villagers.

 

Villages in the southern districts of Midnapore (west), Purulia and Bankura are acutely plagued by the elephants, which emerge from the Dalma forest in search of food and destroy ripe paddy crops, besides trampling huts.

 

Villagers chase them away with flaming torches, the noise of crackers and beating of drums. However, the elephants seem to be losing their fear of such objects, say wildlife experts.