Suk Ram´s two sons and wife are observing the mourning rites at a house in the village of Bagahi, about a mile north of Pyauli. “We couldn´t observe the mourning there as we were not sure the elephants would not return,” Suk Ram´s elder son Krishna said.[break]
The wild tuskers from adjoining Chitwan National Park attacked the village at 2 a.m. Sunday, killing Kumari Tamang, 55, and Suk Ram, 60, and seriously injuring Kumari´s husband Aslal and his other wife Hari Maya, apart from destroying about a dozen houses and crops.
Following the incident, the villagers have been spending their nights on a hilltop after completing their day´s work. The 27 squatter families believe the elephants cannot make the steep climb and also that they can see the elephants coming if they do approach the slopes. The few huts on the hilltop cannot accommodate all the families and they have been living in the open.
The village located just 20 yards from the national park has been bearing the brunt of tusker terror every year. Villagers had breathed a sigh of relief following the installation of an electric fence after a certain Shiva Sharma was killed by elephants four years ago. But the terror returned after the fence was swept away by floods this year.
Meanwhile, Dr Narendra Man Babu Pradhan, chief conservation officer at the park, claimed that the elephant that wrecked havoc at Pyauli killed one person at Thori in the same district a week ago. “We have mobilized two teams to take the elephant under control but they have not been able to do so,” Dr Pradhan disclosed.
Five persons have lost their lives to the tuskers in the park in the last two months. The families of the victims are given a compensation of Rs 150,000 for each death while the injured get medical expenses of up to Rs 50,000.
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