Maungdaw: A model villager in Arakan State has been trampled to death by a wild elephant that attached the man when he was on his way home from the jungle, village authorities said on Monday.
47-year-old U Hla Aung from Shwe Natala model village in southern Buthidaung Township died on 19 April at the scene where the elephant trampled him.
"We rushed to him when he cried for help but we could not save him from the elephant. Before we reached him the elephant had already left. All his bones were broken and his body was trampled into pieces by the elephant," the village authority said.
U Hla Aung is from Burma proper and came to the village along with his family in a government program to settle the model village.
Wild elephants frequently attack and damage property and crops in northern Arakan State in areas where they are losing their natural habitat to the careless cutting of trees in the Mayu Range by government-backed timber companies. Authorities are also capturing wild elephants in the area.
According to a recent local survey, nearly 100 people in northern Arakan have been killed by elephants since 1988.
U Hla Aung is survived by his 47-year-old wife and his two kids, who are living in Shwe Natala model village in Buthidaung Township.
