A 22-year-old hula party member was trampled to death by a wild elephant early on Friday when he was trying to divert a herd approaching a potato field in Jhargram’s Chitalbani village.

A hula party is a group of people armed with torches and drums, deployed by the forest department in different jungle regions to drive away elephants to avoid human-animal conflicts.

A hula team is usually made up of local people who know the nature of the
elephants and how to drive them away if they approach human habitats or agricultural fields.

Chandrakanta Mandal, 22, of Chitalbani village was part of a hula party to guide a herd of seven elephants going towards West Midnapore.

An eyewitness said two of the elephants had suddenly deviated and entered a potato field. Mandal and one of his companions were trying to drive the two pachydermas away from the field to save the crop.

“One of the elephants suddenly started chasing the duo. While his companion could flee, Chandrakanta could not run fast and fell on the field. The elephant immediately trampled him upon,” said Asit Mahato, an eyewitness and a member of the hula party.

A forester said the source of food was not enough for elephants in Jhargram and farmers cultivate potatoes and a few other vegetables on the bank of the Subarnarekha river. On their way to cross the river, two of the animals discovered the potato field, a source of their food.

“It may be that the elephant was disturbed because they were being driven away from a source of the food and that is why it chased and killed a hula party member,” said the forester.

He said lone elephants had recently started entering villages during the day in search of food.

“We have planted many fruit trees inside the forest. But those will take a few years to generate fruits,” he added.

The human-animal conflict in Jhargram is not new as 16 persons were killed during the 2023-2024 period because of attacks by elephants. Last year, 26 persons lost their lives because of elephant attacks in different places.

On December 29, a wild elephant that got separated from its herd barged into a two-storied mud house in Jhargram, dragged out a sleeping 70-year-old woman and trampled her to death in the courtyard.

A source said Jhargram had become a hotspot of human-animal conflicts as there are many villages inside and adjacent to the forests.

“The forest of the area is not dense like north Bengal and it became tougher for us to handle so many elephants at a time,” said a source in the forest department.

“We are disturbed by regular elephant attacks. Sometimes, the animals damage crops and sometimes they claim our lives. A youth has died and we will request the government to give proper compensation to his family,” said Dhananjay Mahato, a villager and a relative of the deceased man.

Woman found dead

Calcutta: A 32-year-old woman was found hanging in her Ballygunge apartment early on Thursday.

Police said the woman’s husband — a senior bank official — was in the house when the alleged incident happened. Their two children, seven and four years old, were asleep.

Investigators suspect the injuries found on Reshmi Verma, a homemaker and a resident of Dover Park, were of suicide.

“Her husband Asish Verma was the first to find her hanging. According to the statement of a security guard, the husband was crying when he called the guard seeking help around 7.30am on Thursday,” said a police officer.

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT