An elephant in eastern India killed a 70-year-old woman and then returned to her funeral to trample her corpse.
Maya Murmu was at a tube well drawing water in Mayurbhanj district’s Raipal village when the wild elephant appeared out of nowhere.
Authorities said it had strayed from the Dalma wildlife sanctuary, nearly 200km from Mayurbhanj.
The family were only able to go ahead with the ceremony after the elephant left.
At least 42 elephant deaths were recorded in the state in just seven months from April to October last year.
In March this year, a woman was killed in an attack by a wild elephant at a forest in central Chhattisgarh state’s Bilaspur district.
In May, a 40-year-old woman was trampled to death by an elephant outside her house near Gudalur, in southern Tamil Nadu state’s Nilgiris district. »