Deaths due to wild elephant attack - A case series

Human fatalities caused by wild elephant attacks in India are increasing and are more common in areas close to elephant habitats. Victims are villagers who reside in settlements close to forest reserves. Although they are aware of the presence of elephants in their neighbourhood, they often enter forests to feed cattle or collect firewood. Here, we report three cases of adult males from villages near forests who were attacked by wild elephants. These cases are rather uncommon when compared to other types of cases autopsied at our centre, as during the attack, all three were alone and in remote places where timely help was not feasible. All succumbed to polytrauma, mainly crush injuries involving large areas of the body, and their bodies were found later by forest guards. Though there were no eyewitnesses to these incidents, autopsy findings and circumstantial evidence ruled out other causes for these types of crush injuries, and the cause of death was attributed to an elephant attack.