Youth killed, 5-year-old injured in wild elephant attack in Assam’s Goalpara

A youth was killed and a five-year-old child was seriously injured after a wild elephant attacked two members of the same family in Assam’s Goalpara district on Monday, September 14 night, in the latest incident highlighting the escalating human-elephant conflict in the area.

The incident took place at Naldoba in Nepalikhuti, under the Goalpara East Assembly constituency, when a lone wild elephant attacked the family members. The youth succumbed to injuries sustained in the attack, while the five-year-old child was seriously injured and rushed to a hospital for treatment.

The latest incident comes days after Amjad Ali, a jawan of the 17th Assam Police Battalion (APBN), was killed in a wild elephant attack in Goalpara district.

A large herd of wild elephants has reportedly been moving through several areas under the jurisdiction of the Goalpara Regional Forest Division, causing disturbances and damaging agricultural fields.

The repeated elephant incursions have raised concerns among residents over the growing frequency of human-elephant encounters in the district and the measures being taken to prevent such incidents.

The latest death has also renewed concerns over the need for effective monitoring of elephant movements, timely alerts to vulnerable communities and measures to minimise encounters between humans and elephants in affected areas.