Father, 6-Year-Old Child Trampled To Death By Elephant In Horrific Attack

An elephant attack in India killed a father and her minor daughter, local media reports said Sunday. The incident took place Saturday in the central state of Chhattisgarh.

According to a forest official, the elephant entered an under-construction house in Belgaon village under the Manendragarh forest range and trampled a man and his 6-year-old daughter to death, NDTV reported, citing Press Trust of India. The deceased man has been identified by Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Loknath Patel as Gulab Singh Gond, Live Hindustan reported [Google Translate].

"Gond's wife Sunita managed to escape. The elephants destroyed the under-construction house and were finally driven away by neighbors and a forest team that arrived there. The pachyderms had come from Madhya Pradesh and have returned," he said. "The forest department had alerted villagers about the movement of a herd of 10 elephants through loudspeakers, but the family of the victims couldn't get information as their house is located in the jungle."

As compensation for immediate aid, the government gave $322 to each of the victims of the attack. The remaining compensation was to be distributed on completion of necessary formalities, an official said. The fate of the elephant involved in the rampage remained unknown.

Authorities said that many divisions in the state have been witnessing cases of elephant-human conflicts over the years, resulting in several deaths, and property damage.

In August 2021, a herd of wild elephants crushed a 4-year-old child and his grandparents to death, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Nine elephants had reportedly crossed the border from a neighboring state and entered the village in search of food. The animals trampled a hut where the elderly couple and child were sleeping. At the time, forest officials said they would be giving compensation of nearly $5,500 per life lost to the family. In February earlier that year, an elderly man and his two grandsons were trampled to death by a herd of elephants in Haiki village in the same state. The grandsons were aged 12 and 13.