Tuskers continue to wreak havoc in UP, Jharkhand and Odisha 

Scarcity of food and water in forests and consecutive droughts due to man made disasters has resulted in increasing cases of human-elephant conflict in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand.

One such horrific incident, a 10-year-old girl and her mother were trampled to death by elephants in Jharkhand's Giridih district.

According to police, a herd of rampaging tuskers entered into Kosi-Kenjhia village and attacked the house of Tulia Devi, 55, killing her and her daughter Mehthi Kumari.

Many other houses in the village were also damaged.

An initial amount of Rs 50,000 was given to the deceased's family as compensation by the forest officials who reached the spot.

The dead bodies have been sent for post-mortem.

In Jharkhand, more than 700 people have been killed by the rampaging elephant

A similar incident took place in Mirzapur village, 15 km from Rampur city, on Monday night where The two wild elephants, wandering from one spot to another since the past 20 days attacked and killed another person.

The jumbos attacked Raju Yadav, who was returning home from work on his bicycle. According to villagers, Raju was not aware of the presence of the wild elephants in the village.

He unwittingly came close to them on the road near his house and was trampled and killed.

Two weeks ago, the wild tuskers killed a person identified as Baijnath in Bilaspur tehsil and injured two others.

Forest officials said that they were now trying to divert the elephants towards Bahedi in Bareilly district.

Forest officials have also sought two more cow elephants from the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve for push-and-pull process to lure the tuskers away from human habitation to the forests.

The two adult bull elephants moved out of Bareilly's Mandanpur village to reach Rathonda village in Rampur on Saturday. In the night, they covered another 10 km to arrive at Mirzapur village on Sunday.

Divisional Forest Officer, Rampur, AK Kashyap said: "We are taking all necessary precautionary measures to divert them in case they do so. We have made arrangements for lighting a fire and keeping husk with chilli powder and firecrackers in hand."

Forest officials have installed loudspeakers on their vehicles and were going around all villages situated within 10-km radius of Peepal Sana, telling villagers keep away from their fields for safety. Similar announcements were also made from mosques on Monday.

PP Singh, Chief Conservator of Forests, Jhansi, and in-charge of elephant rescue operation, said: "Though the tuskers diverted towards a westward direction, they are still in our range. There is nothing to panic. Due to weekly markets held at the villages in Rampur on Saturday, we could not conduct the push-and-pull process properly.

"However, we will continue with our strategy to move the two bull elephants in the right direction. Though we are taking help of three cow elephants from Dudhwa in our rescue operation, we have sought two more for assistance. We are expecting the two cow elephants to arrive by Monday."

The push-and-pull process involves lighting a fire at dusk behind the tuskers to scare them while the cow elephants from Dudhwa move about 400 metres ahead to attract the tuskers and guide them to safety.

Officials have planned to take them to either Corbett National Park or Nepal.

The two jumbos from Nepal that entered the agricultural belt of Pilibhit's Amaria block on June 24, have claimed four lives and injured three people.

They are attracting a lot of public attention as most people in the region have never seen a wild jumbo before

PAC personnel have been deployed to prevent crowds from getting close to the jumbos.369 people killed in Odisha elephant attacks since 2015

As many as 369 persons were killed and 207 injured in wild elephant attacks in the last four years in Odisha, said a Minister on Tuesday.

Forest and Environment Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh informed the Assembly that these deaths occurred between January 2015 and June 2019.

The Minister was replying to a question by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislator Mukesh Kumar Pal. So on an average 92 people have been killed each year.

The Forest Department has erected stone walls and solar-powered fences in several sensitive places to deter the jumbos from coming to human habitations, Arukh said.

He also said that number of steps, including the development of habitations as well as digging of water bodies and plantation (as fodder) for safe habitation of these mammals in the state.

Besides, several squads have been engaged to track the movement of the wild elephants and keep them away from the human habitations.

The department has also brought a special vehicle 'Gaja', which is used in driving away the elephant herd from village areas thus saving human lives.