Woman killed in wild elephant attack in Chhattisgarh's Balrampur

Balrampur, Apr 2 (PTI) A 54-year-old woman was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Chhattisgarh's Balrampur district on Wednesday morning, officials said.
The incident took place in Siliyarikona forest under Shankargarh forest range when the victim, identified as Gidhi Pahadi Korva, was out to collect Mahua fruit with other women, a forest official said.
On sensing the presence of a tusker, other women managed to flee while Gidhi came face to face with the animal.
The elephant caught hold of her with its trunk and trampled her to death, he said.
Forest and police personnel reached the spot and sent the body for post-mortem, the official said.
The woman's kin, residents of nearby Jagima Jotad village, were provided an instant relief amount of Rs 25,000 while the remaining compensation of Rs 5.75 lakh will be given after completing necessary formalities, he added.
Teams of forest personnel have been keeping a tab on the movement of the tusker and alerting locals, he said.
On Monday, two persons were killed and another was injured in separate elephant attacks in the district.
Human-elephant conflicts were a major cause of concern in Chhattisgarh in the last decade, especially in northern parts. But now such incidents are being reported in some districts of the central region in the last few years.
The most-affected districts are Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur, Mahasamund, Dhamtari, Gariaband, Balod, Balrampur and Kanker.
According to forest officials, around 320 people were killed in elephant attacks in the state in the last five years.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)