85-year-old man killed in wild elephant attack in Tripura, locals stage protest over ‘delayed response’

“He went to my house where he had dinner. He then went to a local temple and on his way back to his ancestral home, a wild elephant killed him,” said Ranjan Chowdhury, the son of the deceased.

The son also said another wild elephant attack had destroyed his father’s residence a few months ago. “I called forest officials today, but there was no response even two hours later. It was the same earlier. Tribal Affairs Minister Bikash Debbarma was elected from here. He assured before the Assembly elections that he would resolve elephant attacks if he was elected. It has been two years since he won the elections, but nothing has been done,” said Ranjan.

In an order on Tuesday, Khowai District Magistrate Chandni Chandran said a wild elephant named Moti, which has been causing damage to life and property in the area for several months, killed the victim. He ordered the district forest officer to tranquillise the elephant within 72 hours and rehabilitate it at the elephant camp in Mungiakami or any other appropriate place. The district magistrate had earlier said that Moti would be radio-collared to track its movements.

Meanwhile, Tripura Disaster Management Authority announced Rs 5 lakh compensation to the deceased’s next of kin.

After the man was killed, later in the evening, a large group of local residents blockaded the road and staged a protest against Tripura State Rifles (TSR) and forest department personnel when they reached the spot allegedly hours after the wild elephant attack. A group of locals also allegedly attacked journalists and one of them, Hiranmay Roy, suffered injuries.

A senior official of the Tripura Police said a complaint was later lodged by the journalists at the Teliamura police station against more than six people in the locality, accusing them of trying to snatch the media persons’ cameras and flashlights and physically injure them.

The region has had at least 26-27 wild animal attacks in the last year. A middle-aged tribal woman was critically injured in a bison attack in Tripura’s Sepahijala district last week.

Forest minister Animesh Debbarma later said that crucial strategy formulation meetings would involve forest officials in devising a working plan to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts in Tripura. However, he said these meetings would be held only after the Lok Sabha elections.

On January 20, only 24 hours after Tripura Forest Minister Bikash Debbarma visited the Khowai district to assure the public that steps were being taken to curb human-animal conflict, another attack by wild elephants occurred in the same district. The previous day, a group of wild elephants had attacked a family’s mudhouse.

According to a report by the state forest department from a few years ago, Tripura has 102 elephants, including 42 wild elephants and 60 in captivity.

As part of setting up natural defence mechanisms for villagers, the state government has started a project to keep bees in agricultural fields to thwart elephant attacks, as jumbos are known to fear stingy insects.

The government has undertaken initiatives to grow elephant fodder in the jungles by planting bamboo and bananas, setting up watering holes, and other infrastructure as part of check dams built in the forests.