SP Trilok Bansal and his wife suffered injuries in an elephant attack.

Dispatch News.

GPM Superintendent of Police (SP) Trilok Bansal and his wife got injured in the elephant attack in the Amaru forest of the district on Tuesday. As per the information received, a herd of elephants attacked the vehicle of SP Bansal and his wife Shweta Bansal at Amaru forest of GPM. SP Bansal has reportedly suffered injuries on his head, and the couple was referred to a hospital in Bilaspur district for better medical assistance.

The officer and his wife today reached the forest reportedly for elephant sighting when they came under the attack of tuskers, said police sources, elaborating that after primary first aid, the officer and his wife were shifted to Bilaspur. As per the government records, 204 people died in elephant attacks in Chhattisgarh between 2018 and 2020. Forty-five jumbos have perished during the same period in the state.

Officials recently reported the movement of at least 307 elephants in 16 herds from different parts of the state, especially Surajpur, Raigarh, Mahasamund, Korba, Balrampur, Jashpur, Gariaband, Balod districts.

The state government hopes to address the human-elephant conflict, which has been severe in Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur, Mahasamund, Dhamtari, Gariyaband, Balod, Balrampur and Kaker districts of Chhattisgarh. During the monsoon session of the parliament, the state government revealed that in 2018, 2019 and 2020, elephant-human encounters led to the death of 204 people and 45 elephants.

During the same period of three years, there were 66,582 cases of crop damage, 5,047 cases of house damages and 3,151 other kinds of damages due to elephant ‘incursions’ into human habitation.