Mother elephant kills two after calf dies; WB CM announces compensation for families of dead men

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 damaged an empty stationary bus, a motorcycle and several houses near the popular Rameshwar temple in the Chandabila forest range in Nayagram.

Condoling the death of two persons, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the families of the two 60-year-old men and said the government will repair the damaged houses.

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 Ananta 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.

The chief minister said it was sad that the mother elephant guarding the dead calf became violent and killed two persons and damaged several houses.

“I announce compensation @ Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased and promise house repairs of the affected,” Banerjee said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick told PTI that the staff of the department were able to drive away the mother elephant from the spot.

This is the first time in several months that an incident of elephant attack is reported from Jhargram and nearby districts, he said.

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