Elephant kills Tourist near Khunia...Wild jumbo tramples Bangladeshi tourist to death

TT, 25 January 2019, Jalpaiguri: A wild tusker chased and trampled to death a Bangladeshi tourist when he went close to the animal to click photos on the fringes of Gorumara National Park in the Dooars on Friday afternoon.

Sayed Nur Sayman Bin, 50, was among five tourists who had been touring the Dooars for the past few days. They were staying at Dalgaon under Jaldhaka police station of Kalimpong district.

"The group had gone out on a safari. While they were returning in a vehicle along the Khunia More-Murti Road, they spotted a wild tusker standing on the road near Chandrachur watchtower.

Seeing the elephant, some of them got off the vehicle and started clicking photos on their cellphones and cameras," said a forest officer.

Sayed, he said, had moved close to the elephant that suddenly gave them a chase. Others could get into the vehicle that moved back but the tusker could catch hold of Sayed. It trampled him to death.

Kiran Shankar Mondal, one of the members of the group, sounded shocked.

"The elephant was apparently calm but suddenly attacked us. We had never thought of such an incident. His family members have been informed," said Mondal.

Sayed, he said, hails from Dhaka. He had been to Burd- wan to visit some of his friends and relatives and from there, he went to the Dooars on a trip.

Foresters and Nagrakata police rushed to the spot. The body was seized and sent for post-mortem.

On November 2017, a similar incident had occurred on the Chalsa-Lataguri Road. Siddikulla Rehman, a private security guard, was tossed to death by a wild elephant while he was taking photos of the animal. "Time and again, we have made it clear that tourists should not get off their vehicles along the forest stretches, and particularly, when any wild animal is around. A section of people gets enthusiastic and violate the instructions," said a senior forester.