Youth killed by elephant

A local youth was killed in an attack by a herd of elephants at Gandhigaon village in Jhinaigati upazila of the district.

The deceased was Chandra Shekhar Koch, 35, a farmer of the village.

Locals said a herd of elephants came down to Gandhigaon village at around 8:00pm. They went to the aman field and started destroying standing crops.

Police and the upazila administration said Chandra Shekhar and some other youths went to drive away the herd from the paddy field. Suddenly, an elephant attacked Chandra Shekhar, it picked him up with its trunk and threw him down.

Local people rushed him to the Jhinaigati Upazila Health Complex, where the doctor declared him dead.

Habibur Rahman, upazila nirbahi officer, said the district administration and the department of forests would pay compensation to Chandra Shekhar's family as per the law.

Biplab Chandra Biswas, officer-in-charge of Jhinaigati Police Station, said police filed an unnatural death case with the station.

Human-elephant conflict has been going on in different areas in Jhinaigati and Nalitabari upazilas of the district for the last several years as people have occupied and set up different structures on the elephants' corridor.

In the district, 31 people died while over a thousand people were injured in elephant attacks in the last 12 years.

A total of 226 people died due to elephant attacks in the whole country, while humans killed 62 elephants in the last 12 years.