Silchar: Two persons were killed in two separate incidents of man-animal conflict in Assam, officials said. In the Pengeri area of Tinsukia district, a man, identified as Sanjeev Das, was allegedly trampled to death by a herd of wild elephants. The incident took place late at night on Wednesday.

According to the locals, Das came under attack while passing through an elephant corridor near Dibujan bridge on the Pengeri-Phulbari link road in the late evening on Wednesday.

After the incident, a team of forest officials and police rushed to the spot and recovered the body on Thursday morning.

In the Behali area of Biswanath district, the body of a missing man was found on Thursday with multiple claw marks on his body, indicating he was mauled by a tiger.

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According to the police, the man, identified as Mohammad Hussain, went missing on Wednesday after he went to collect wood from the forest. The family members informed the forest officials about it, following which a search operation was launched by the forest department and the police.

Police said they recovered the man’s body from a forest area at around 6:30am on Thursday and it was sent to a government hospital for postmortem.

Officials said that the injuries on Mohammad’s body indicate that he was attacked by a tiger, as the forest in Behali has a population of big cats.

“It is suspected that he was attacked by a tiger, but we have to ascertain the cause of death with a postmortem report. Police are handling that part, and we are waiting for the report,” an official said.

Meanwhile, the locals appealed to the authorities to take appropriate steps to prevent the tiger from entering the residential area. 

In another incident on Wednesday, two residents of Nagaon district were injured in an attack by a tiger and were rescued by the other locals with grievous injuries, according to the forest officials.

Nagaon district superintendent of police (SP) Swapnaneel Deka said that a team of forest officials was rushed to the area after the incident and they are investigating the matter.

The forest officials said it is suspected that the tiger came out of the sanctuary, possibly in search of food due to the situation created by recent flooding.

“A large number of animals are affected by the floods and the tiger must have come out in search of food due to the present situation. We are inspecting the matter further,” they said.

Heavy rainfall in the past few days has led to flooding in most parts of Kaziranga National Park (KNP) and Tiger Reserve in Assam and the nearby areas.