Killer Elephant Hunted After Beast Kills 4 in Nepal
Soldiers are hunting a wild elephant that strayed into villages in Nepal and killed four people in the span of three months.
On Monday, officials in the Himalayan nation said that the beast walked into a thatched house in Gardi village adjoining Chitwan National Park, located 50 miles south of Kathmandu, on Saturday and pulled an elderly couple in their 60s from their bed and trampled them to death.
Shiva Ram Gelal, assistant district administrator from Bharatpur, the nearest city where the incident happened, said that the same elephant had killed two other villagers less than three months ago, according to Reuters.
"We have given orders to the army to shoot the elephant that has gone mad," Gelal said, according to Reuters. "Soldiers are now searching for it."
Nepal has about 300 elephants, including more than 100 domesticated adult elephants that take tourists on popular jungle rides and safari resorts to see the country's wildlife, which include animals like the one-horned Asian rhinoceroses and Royal Bengal Tigers.
Elephants are protected by national law, and people guilty of killing the animals can face up to 15 years behind bars. However, Gelal said that the Local Administration Act in Nepali law allows authorities to kill an elephant if it is responsible for the loss of human life, Reuters reports.