Bokaro, February 5: In a tragic incident in Bokaro district, Jharkhand, a herd of elephants crushed three members of the same family, resulting in their deaths. Two others sustained serious injuries. The event occurred in the village of Barkipunnu in the Gomia block, where the sudden attack by elephants caused widespread panic early Thursday morning.
According to local villagers, the herd entered the village around 7 PM on Wednesday. The villagers managed to scare the elephants back into the forest with loud noises. However, the danger was not over. Around 3 AM on Thursday, the same herd re-entered the village and began wreaking havoc.
During this chaos, the elephants trampled three family members from the Karamali family—two women and one man—leading to their immediate deaths. The deceased have been identified as Ganga Karamali, Kamli Devi, and Bhagiya Devi. Two other injured relatives were rushed to a nearby hospital, where their condition is being monitored by medical staff.
The sudden nature of this incident has left the residents of Barkipunnu village in deep shock. The tragic loss of three lives has cast a pall of mourning over the community. Villagers have expressed concerns about the increasing movement of elephants in the area, citing a lack of adequate safety measures that have led to repeated incidents like this.
Notably, on January 25, a similar incident occurred in the remote village of Darahabeda in the Gomia block, where Karamchand Soren was killed by elephants. Following that incident, state minister Yogendra Prasad instructed the forest department to take strict measures to curb elephant attacks. However, the recent tragedy has raised questions about the preparedness of the forest department. Since January, over 18 lives have been lost to elephant attacks in Jharkhand.
The rising frequency of such incidents has turned human-elephant conflict into a serious challenge for the state, prompting calls for effective and concrete measures to address the issue.
