Two men killed, one injured in attack by jumbos believed to be part of ill-fated BTR herd in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal: Two persons were killed and one injured near Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh's Umaria district on Saturday by three elephants which are believed to be part of the herd that was hit by 10 jumbo deaths earlier this week, officials said.

Officials said Ramratan Yadav (50) was killed in Devra village, some 10 kilometres away from BTR, when he went to answer nature's call.

After this, the three elephants killed Bhairav Kol (35) in Brahe village in the buffer zone of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve and then injured Malu Sahu (32) in Banka just outside the reserve, the officials informed.

Officials said the three elephants that went on a rampage this morning may be part of the 13-strong herd that has seen 10 deaths, a case that has made national headlines.

On October 29, four wild elephants were found dead in Sankhani and Bakeli under Khitoli range of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR), while four died on October 30 and two on October 31. The elephants may have died after consuming some toxic substance, as per officials.

When asked if the three elephants are part of the ill-fated herd, Umaria divisional forest officer Vivek Singh told PTI the pachyderms were being tracked and any finality about their identity would come after collection of data from the monitoring process.

Meanwhile, sources said one of the tuskers from the herd had arrived at the spot where the 10 deceased jumbos were being buried, apparently to mourn, which it did through trumpeting, stomping of feet and vigorous ear-flapping.

The sources said forest department personnel and others who had gathered at the spot during the time were left "shaken" due to the behaviour of this pachyderm.

An official, on condition of anonymity, said pachyderms can be vengeful and added the three surviving elephants from the herd were wandering in a radius of 15 kilometres from the site where the 10 died.

As per officials, the post mortem reports of the 10 elephants have highlighted toxicity along with huge quantities of kodo millets in their stomachs.

On Friday, a top forest department official said samples collected from the field as well as organic, like viscera, liver, kidney etc were being sent to ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute in Izatnagar in UP's Bareli as well as the MP forensic laboratory in Sagar to ascertain more details about the deaths.

Apart from this, the National Tiger Conservation Authority and MP's state tiger strike force are also probing the deaths.

Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has asked minister of state for forests Dileep Ahirwar, additional chief secretary (forest) Ashok Barnwal and the state's head of forest force (HOFF) Aseem Shrivastava to visit Umaria district ad submit a report on the elephant deaths.

The BTR is spread across Umaria and Katni districts in eastern Madhya Pradesh.