Indian officials shoot killer elephant dead
Date: 26-Jun-02
Country: INDIA
"We chased it for a while, then it chased us. Finally, we shot it dead and it fell like a stone," West Bengal divisional forest officer Raju Das said from Darjeeling district.
The elephant crossed into Nepal this week night but returned to West Bengal yesterday morning and killed its tenth victim, a 70-year-old villager, by stomping on him for several minutes, Das said.
The elephant was fatally hit by two bullets fired by a team of shooters from the state's forest department riding on tame elephants.
The elephant's victims included a forest guard and a paramilitary soldier stationed on the border.
Darjeeling district is on a route used by elephants foraging for food between India and Nepal.
Animal rights groups say elephants stray into human settlements in search of food because of the loss of forest cover. A herd of wild elephants killed four people in December in a tea garden in northern West Bengal.
India has an elephant population of some 30,000.