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The mother of the children also sustained critical injuries in the attack and is under treatment at Nagaon civil hospital.
Three members of a family, including two children, were trampled to death by a wild elephant at Kaliabor in Nagaon district early on Sunday. The mother of the children also sustained critical injuries in the attack and is under treatment at Nagaon civil hospital.

In another incident, an adult male leopard was beaten to death by villagers at Kakojan area in Jorhat district on Sunday. Forest staff reached the spot after the incident and brought the carcass for autopsy.

The incident of the killing of a father and his two children by the elephant occurred at Hargaon village in Sakmuthia tea garden around 1am on Sunday. A wild elephant came out from the nearby Karbi hills around midnight in search of food and entered Hargaon village inside the tea garden. The pachyderm damaged a house of the village and attacked the family members while they were asleep. Three of them died on the spot.

"The elephant attacked Maisu Munda and his two children - Amsu and Sunu - and they died on the spot. The wife Saraswati tried to flee under the cover of darkness but the elephant attacked her too. She is now at Nagaon Civil hospital in a critical condition," said a forest officer adding that the bodies had been sent to Nagaon civil hospital for autopsy.

The area where the incident took place is located near the inter district border of Karbi Anglong and Nagaon district. Wild elephants regularly come down from Karbi hills in search of food. They go on the rampage in the human habitations and create panic among the villagers. District forest department has taken up some measures to chase the pachyderms away from the human habitations but in vain.

At Kakojan Dulia Gaon under Jorhat forest range in the district around 2pm a man in the village went out to the nearby forest to collect firewood when he came close to the leopard. On seeing the man, the big cat tried to attack him but the villager had attacked it with a sharp weapon to save himself. He also raised an alarm. On hearing him, other locals from the village came out in large numbers and beat up the leopard causing it grievous injuries.

"The leopard died in the attack. When we reached the spot, it had already died. We brought the carcass for autopsy," said forest range officer (Jorhat) Kushal Deka adding the leopard was an eight-year-old male animal and there are more leopards of its age taking shelter in the area.

"Leopards are generally take shelter at tea bushes and small jungles. The area where the incident occurred was full of small jungles and we believe more leopards are there," he said.

Source: TNN