Man taking selfie dies trampled by wild elephant

A man in India was trampled to death by a savage elephant while trying to click on a selfie in the western state of Maharastra.

Shashikant Ramchandra Satre, a 23-year-old electrician, was laying cables nearby on Thursday when he came across a wild tusker roaming around the Gadchiroli forest.

Satre, along with two of his friends, reportedly decided to venture into the forest to see the elephant. Seeing the animal, tried to click a selfie from a distance, NDTV reported.

However, the elephant, named CME3 by forest officials, became aggressive and trampled Satre under its feet. The other two men managed to save their lives and escape from the area.

Forest officials have described the tusker as huge and aggressive, and it entered the Gadchiroli forest in Maharashtra from the neighboring state of Chhattisgarh.

The elephant had killed at least seven other people between November 2023 and May 2024 in the states of Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Maharashtra, police said. Indian Times reported.

“We have already informed nearby villages to take precautions and have sent forest personnel to each village,” said Vivek Khandekar, principal chief conservator of forests of Maharashtra.

“Our field staff, along with the Rapid Rescue Team, are already active in the area and informing locals about the presence of wild elephants and the do’s and don’ts of dealing with them,” he told the newspaper. Indian.

India It has reportedly recorded the highest number of selfie deaths. followed by the United States and Russia.

A man in southern India was mauled to death in early February by an Asiatic lion after jumping into its enclosure to take a selfie with the animal.

Prahlad Gujjar, 38, scaled a 12-foot-high fence and jumped into the lion enclosure at the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in Tirupati on Thursday, Andhra Pradesh, zoo officials said.

In 2021, another man was trampled to death by an elephant while trying to take a selfie with the animal in Chhattisgarh.

There have been 379 selfie-related deaths worldwide between 2008 and 2021, according to a study published in the Travel Medicine Magazine.