A man was killed in a chance encounter with an elephant near BHEL township in Haridwar on Wednesday morning. The irked employees of BHEL approached the divisional forest officer and demanded relocation of the elephant to another forest area. Notably the elephant which took the life of this man was collared and its movement was noticed at 4 am in the BHEL area on Wednesday. During a span of about one year, this pachyderm is believed to have caused the death of two other persons.
The victim has been identified as Virendra Singh who worked as machinist in BHEL after having taken voluntary retirement from Indian Air Force. He hailed from Bijnor and around 6 am on Wednesday came across the elephant while coming out of his house near sector one in BHEL township. Before the residents of the colony could realise, the elephant had already killed him. Then the colony residents informed the forest department after which the team reached the spot and took stock of situation.
Speaking to The Pioneer, the Haridwar DFO Akash Verma said, “As such there is no eye witness to the killing incident. Prima facie by looking at the dead body, it seems the victim was killed by the same elephant which has been collared. Around 4 am in the morning, the elephant was seen in the area and was made to move towards Chilla forest range by forest guards. There is another elephant which has been seen in the surroundings but it never reached residential area so circumstantial evidence confirm that the BHEL employee was killed by the collared jumbo.”
When asked about its relocation, the DFO said, “The elephant was tranquilised and sent back to forest earlier. We have already written to higher forest authorities that the elephant must be removed from this area. I have personally spoken to the Rajaji National Park and Tiger Reserve director to take necessary action since it has become a threat to life.”
This is not the first incident of a person dying in a chance encounter with an elephant in this region. Earlier in June 2017, a 55 year old woman Savitri Devi was trampled to death by an elephant in Haridwar forest area The body of the woman was found at compartment number two of Kharkhari beat of Haridwar range of Rajaji Tiger Reserve. The woman had gone in the park area for collecting firewood but did not return till night following which a search was launched and her body was discovered. Six months before that, an incident was reported in Shyampur range of Haridwar forest division in which 65 year old Van Gujjar, Alamudeen was killed by an elephant.
