A 70-year-old woman was trampled to death by a herd of wild jumbos at Dirok tea estate in Margherita area of Tinsukia district on Wednesday morning.
The victim identified as Sonai Tanti was sleeping alone when the rampaging herd tore down her hut killing her in the process. It was the second such incident in the district in the last 24 hours after a 44-year old housewife was trampled to death by wild jumbos in the Jagun area on Tuesday.
Ranger of Margherita west range P Singh who rushed to the area following the incident said that the wild jumbo herd had ventured out from the Upper Dehing reserve forest in search of food.
“We are working with very less manpower making it difficult for us to look after every village. We have formed a committee at the village level to check elephant depredation. We have provided firecrackers and torch lights to the villagers. We are working to keep the wild pachyderm away from human habitation,” the ranger said.
The forest official attributed the growing incidents of jumbo depredation to shrinking forest cover and encroachment of elephant corridors which have forced the pachyderms to move out from their ecological space and stray into places of human habitation.
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