West Bengal man trampled to death by wild elephant in Jharkhand

A 37-year-old man was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Jharkhand's Seraikela-Kharswan district on Monday, officials said.

Divisional Forest Officer (Seraikela) Aditya Narayan said the incident happened near a forest in the Ichagarh police station area in the afternoon.

The deceased, identified as Asraful Haque of Tetulia in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, was earning his livelihood as a hawker in Ichagarh for quite some time, they said.

On reports that Haque was trying to click a selfie with the elephant when the incident happened, Narayan said forest officials were at the spot and trying to verify the circumstances leading to the attack.

''The possibility that he was trying to click a selfie cannot be ruled out. Wild elephants usually attack people during night or early morning, but this happened in broad daylight,'' he said.

The body was sent for post-mortem examination to the Sadar Hospital in Seraikela, he said, adding that forest personnel were working to drive the elephant back into the forest.