Horrifying photos out of India show a wild elephant tossing a man into the air and trampling him to death in West Bengal on Monday, just a day after several other people in the state suffered a similar fate.
Local media said the incident occurred in the village of Monteswar, identifying the victim as 64-year-old farmer Anil Bagdi. His brother was also attacked but escaped with his life, according to reports.
A disturbing video captured the attack, and appears to show a large group of onlookers.
The previous day, three elephants reportedly killed a group of four other people. Senior forest official Ajay Das said authorities tranquilized a male elephant, which later died, but an adult female and a calf ran away.
Every year in India, approximately 400 people and at least 100 elephants die in confrontations, Harper's Magazine reported in 2013. While they are normally docile creatures, elephants can become aggressive when their habitat is encroached upon or when they are in search of food.
“They rarely go out of their way to hurt people, but if someone gets in their way, they won’t hesitate,” Dhruba Das, a professional human-elephant conflict mitigator in Assam state, told the magazine.
Urbanization and deforestation in India have caused other dangerous confrontations between humans and wild animals, The Associated Press points out.
Just last month, an elephant stormed through the town of Siliguri in northeastern India, crushing cars and homes in its path as villagers scrambled out of the way. The animal was eventually tranquilized, lifted from the street with a crane and returned to the forest.
Also in February, a leopard wandered into a school in Bangalore, India, and mauled six people, leaving them injured but alive. After a long chase, authorities managed to tranquilize and capture the cat.
Related
Before You Go
