RAIPUR: An elderly woman was trampled to death in tusker attack on Saturday morning when she was out to collect forest produce in Korba district. This is third death due to man-elephant conflict in the region within a week.78-year-old Nevarthin Bai from village Sakdukla had gone to the forest to collect forest produce early on Saturday when she came across a wild elephant . The tuskers in the region have been behaving aggressively immediately as they come in contact with humans and chase them.Having no refuge, the woman ran for life on seeing the wild elephant but she couldn't run much far. She was rolled over by the elephant in its trunk and was thrown on the ground with a strong impact. The pachyderm then trampled her till she died.Locals didn't dare to come for the rescue and once the animal left, they rushed towards her only to find her dead. Her mutilated body was sent for post-mortem by forest officials.Forest department had been warning people against going into the forest in presence of elephants and expresses incompetency to deal with the issue without co-operation of public.It was early this week when another elderly woman was trampled to death by elephant when she went to forest to relieve herself in Kartala. Last Saturday a man was attacked in forest too. 60-year-old Ghusiaram Rathiya had gone to collect mahua fruits when an elephant trampled him to death.Presently, a herd of 25 tuskers is out in forests and officials said that an immediate relief compensation of Rs 25,000 is paid to the deceased family and remaining amount of Rs 3.75 lakh gets sanctioned later. The location of elephant was being tracked so that the locals can be alerted. Time to time hooting is done to alert the villagers.Amid several steps being taken to reduce human-elephant conflict, wildlife activist Nitin Singhvi has written to chief of state forest department suggesting that houses in conflict regions be painted in dark or black colour as elephants resist dark colours and are attracted towards bright and white colours."All the buildings, houses if painted in dark colours would surely reduce number of attacks by tuskers. Also, villagers should be asked not to wear white clothes and even the white colour can be avoided on vehicles they drive. Also, the colour of saris distributed by government in affected zones can be dark green in colour," Singhvi said.He added in the letter that the best way to prevent elephants attacking the houses that store grains and mahua fruits, is to lock them in air tight plastic containers and inside proper shelter or warehouses.

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