An elephant killed a forest ranger in Panna Tiger Reserve

In a tragic incident forest range officer B R Bhagat (54) was killed by an  enraged elephant near Gagau Range of Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya pradesh  on Friday afternoon. The elephant named Rambahadur reportedly crushed to death from his trunk while the deceased was trying to pass on the wireless set to another colleague seated upon him. A team of field officials in Panna Tiger Reserve were on a lookout for tiger P-433 reportedly to loosen collar band after tranquilizing the big cat. The tiger was suffering from tightened collar band. Though rowdy elephant Rambahadur behaved quite friendly with mahout and other forest staff, his violent behavior was shocking, said the guide on condition of anonymity. There are about 15 trained elephants located in various camps namely Rajawaria, Lalaar and Sakra etc. The Gagau range where incident took place is about 38 km from Panna district headquarter.

According to information deceased Bhagat was posted at Hinota Range of Panna Tiger Reserve. Following tip off about tightening of collar band of tiger earmarked as P-433, elephant borne tracking teams of field officials were dispatched from various locations to trace ailing tiger (tightening of collar band) early this morning. The idea was to tranquilize it than release  back into jungle after loosening of band. But when field staff was set to march into jungle the rowdy elephant turned violent. Elephant crushed to death the range officer. 

Deputy director of Panna Tiger Reserve Ishwar Jarande Ramhare said the dead body after postmortem was handed over to family of deceased.  An Ex-gratia amount of Rs 50,000/ was handed over to the family immediately. SP, Panna,Mayank Awasthi said the incident was tragic and deceased sacrificed life while service of government duty, hence martyr.