Army hunts ‘mad’ killer elephant in Nepal: ‘Wild beast’ pulls couple from bed then tramples them to death
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | December 18, 2012 8:01
A killer elephant is being hunted by Nepalese soldiers today after it strayed into villages and killed four people in three months.
The rogue wild elephant walked into a thatched house in Gardi village adjoining Chitwan National Park, 50 miles south of Kathmandu, pulled a couple in their 60s from their bed and trampled them to death, said Shiva Ram Gelal, assistant district administrator from Bharatpur, the nearest city.
Nepal has about 300 elephants, including around 100 domesticated adults which take tourists on jungle rides in the country’s many safari resorts.
The same animal killed two other villagers within the last three months, park officials said.
‘We have given orders to the army to shoot the elephant that has gone mad,’ Gelal told Reuters.
Elephants are protected by law and anyone convicted of killing one faces up to 15 years in jail, but Gelal said the Local Administration Act – a Nepali law – allowed authorities to kill the animal if it was responsible for the loss of human life.
Species with high value to illegal traders had seen dramatic declines in recent years, including forest elephants in parts of the Congo basin, Asian elephant, Sumatran rhino and Javan rhino.
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