© GettyCharging elephant
Haribhadra Acharya, the park's chief conservation officer, said the elephant has been wandering around Rambhauribhatha area for the past few weeks.
Sadhu Kamalesh, who was living in the forest for meditation, was killed on Thursday morning. His body was discovered on Friday.
Dong, a resident of Thori-4, Parsa, and Dhakal, who hailed from Manahari, Makwanpur, were attacked as they were visiting a fair on the New Year's day.
They were riding pillions on motorcycles driven by their friends, both of whom survived the incident.
Acharya said the four friends were travelling through the route that is not guarded by the Nepal Army soldiers.
The incident would not have happened had they taken the safer route via Charbhaiya Post, he added.
Conservationists said the elephant might have become violent due to the noise made by vehicles travelling through the forest route to reach the fair site.
Thousands of people take the forest route to attend the fair that is held every New Year's Day. Acharya said the park authority had alerted the fair organisers about the risk of wildlife attacks after Sadhu Kamalesh was killed on Thursday.
Comment: Elsewhere in just the past week wild elephants have killed a woman in Botswana, 2 children in Zimbabwe, 2 women in separate incidents in Tamil Nadu, India and cyclist in Bengal.
When taken in conjunction with the following selection of additional reports over the last year or so, it all seems to indicate an increasing trend of attacks lately.
Rogue elephant kills 15 people over a month in India
Two killed by elephant in West Bengal, India; 108 such deaths across the state in 2016
Wild elephant kills 4 in Tamil Nadu, India
Wild elephant kills two in Karnataka, India
Elephant kills 2 and injures 5 in Nepal
Woman killed by elephant at Kruger National Park, South Africa
As regards the 2nd report listed above it's also worth bearing in mind that 108 fatalities due to elephant attacks in just one state of India over a year does seem extremely high given the fact that some other sources claim that elephants kill a total of around 500 or 600 people annually across the world.