Angered by death of calf, mother elephant kills two, attacks bus in West Bengal

Jhargram: Two elderly men were killed in an attack by a female elephant in West Bengal’s Jhargram district on Wednesday, following the death of the pachyderm’s calf, a forest official said.

The animal also ransacked a bus and a motorcycle near the popular Rameshwar temple in the Chandabila forest range in Nayagram.

The jumbo attacked a group of people who went there to see the carcass of the calf and flung the two men to the ground killing them, the official said.

The deceased were identified as Anand Jana (60), a resident of Deulbar village under the Nayagram Police Station limits, and Shashadhar Mahata, also aged 60, hailing from neighbouring Biribaria.

“Some people went to see the carcass of the elephant calf in the Chandabila forest range, and the elephant attacked them. Most of them managed to flee except the two elderly men. The elephant flung them to the ground and they died on the spot,” Kharagpur DFO Shivananda Ram said.

A 40-member forest personnel team was deployed there to monitor the situation, he added.