Man trampled to death by wild elephant in Maungdaw Twsp

By Admin 07 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
7 June 2023, Maungdaw

A resident of Kanpyin Thazi Village in southern Maungdaw Township was trampled to death by a wild elephant while hunting frogs in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

U Maung Ne Win, 36, and U Khin Maung Than, 37, encountered the elephant while searching for frogs in the paddy fields near the local forest to the east of Kanpyin Thazi Village.

U Khin Maung Than managed to escape, but U Maung Ne Win did not.

U Aye Than, the brother of the victim, said: “The two cousins went to catch frogs around 2:30 a.m. They were attacked by the wild elephant as they came close to the forest. My brother could not run fast because one of his legs was paralysed due to polio.”

“I feel very sorry for him. He has three children,” he added.

A staff member of the Maungdaw Township Forest Department said the department puts up warning signs about the danger of wild elephants near forests in the area.

Elephants that live primarily along the Mayu mountain range began encroaching on residential villages with increasing frequency starting some 10 years ago, eating paddy fields, entering villages and sometimes attacking humans.

Rural people living near the Mayu mountains in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedung townships are heavily dependent on forests for their livelihoods, and cases of humans being killed or injured in elephant encounters are relatively common in those townships.

As their habitats were negatively affected by Cyclone Mocha last month, elephants have come closer to residential areas in search of food, according to residents.

On May 27, a resident of Donepike Village in Rathedaung Township was also killed by a wild elephant while cutting down bamboo along the Mayu mountain range.