Kolkata, Oct 23 : Three persons, including one woman and a child, have been killed in two separate incidents of elephant attack in West Bengal during the last 24 hours.

The deaths have been reported from the Alipurduar district in North Bengal.

According to state forest department officials, the first casualty because of the elephant attack took place at Madarihat area in Alipurduar district, when a person returning home was suddenly attacked by an elephant on the road adjacent to the Jaldapara National Park. The person killed in the attack has been identified as Kader Ali, a resident of the Chekamari area.

He was severely injured in the elephant attack and was immediately rushed to Madarihat Rural Hospital by the local villagers, where he died soon after.

The second incident took place early Thursday morning. Thursday morning at Madhya Khayerbari area, also in Alipurduar district. One lady, Sonia Munda, was sitting in front of her house along with her 18-month-old daughter, Lakshmi Munda, when suddenly an elephant came out of the jungle there and attacked them. Both of them died on the spot.

The local people claimed that for quite some time now, the elephants have been coming to the localities adjacent to the jungle and often attacking the people. At the time, they were even destroying the residential huts of the local people, which had left the people in the region.

The local people have also complained that although they have approached the state forest department officials several times for action to prevent the elephants from coming to the localities from the jungles, their pleas have been ignored by the department officials.

As per the data of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, a total of 436 individuals were killed in West Bengal during the period from 2019 to 2024, the latest available.

Shrinking forest areas, coupled with an increase in elephant population, are considered the most important factors behind frequent human-elephant conflict in West Bengal.

A number of mitigation initiatives, including building elephant corridors, using physical barriers like fencing, and forming committees to coordinate elephant movement, have been taken to bring down instances of such conflict.

/IANS