Nepal army hunts killer elephant: official

KATHMANDU - Agence France-Presse

AFP

Soldiers are hunting a rogue wild elephant that is terrorising villages in southern Nepal and has killed four people in three months, officials said on Monday.
 
The latest victims were a couple in their 60s who were dragged out of their hut and trampled on Saturday in Chitwan National Park, 150 kilometres (95 miles) south of Kathmandu, said district chief officer Himnath Dawadi.
 
"It snatched them with its trunk, brought them outside and killed the couple," he said, adding that the elephant had "gone mad". "In the past three months the animal has killed four people. So we have requested the Nepal Army soldiers, who guard the national park, to shoot it. They are hunting it in the forest," Dawadi told AFP.
 
Nepal has about 300 elephants, including around 100 domesticated adults which take tourists on jungle rides in the country's many safari resorts.
 
Most are found on the sub-equatorial plains of the southern Terai, where contact with humans is a regular problem.
 
Anyone convicted for killing one faces up to 15 years in jail, although the law allows authorities to kill elephants deemed responsible for the loss of human life.