Rampaging elephants kill 17 in central India
Date: 14-Jan-02
Country: INDIA
The state government has called experts to tame and catch the elephants who come from jungles in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand and destroy crops.
Anoop Srivastava, divisional forest officer for Surguja, a district in the state, said elephants go into villages in search of mahua flowers, used for making liquor in the predominantly tribal state.
He said several villages had to be evacuated due to the fear of elephant attacks.
Animal rights groups say elephants stray into human settlement in search of food as development projects denude their native forests.
