West Bengal: Class 10 Madhyamik student dies in elephant attack on way to exam center

BAGDOGRA: A Madhyamik candidate died on Thursday, the first day of the class ten board examination, in an elephant attack at Maharajghat in West Bengal on his way to the center, police said.

Arjun Das was on a bike being driven by his father when the elephant suddenly separated from its herd in Baikunthapur jungle and attacked him. The pachyderm dashed him to the ground and he was rushed to Jalpaiguri superspeciality hospital after the animal left the spot.

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At the hospital doctors declared the student as brought dead, the police said. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was on her way back from Meghalaya, expressed her grief over the death and urged the education department to arrange bus services for students living in forest areas and writing their board examinations.

“I’m deeply saddened by this incident. I have asked the education department to provide bus services to students living in forest areas to reach their examination centres. The forest department and the police administration must also help them in this matter,” she told reporters.

Banerjee said authorities in Nepal and Bangladesh have successfully implemented methods to tackle attacks by elephants but Bengal and Jharkhand are yet to find ways to handle them. “There are several such incidents happening in Jharkhand and West Bengal and we are not able to tackle it,” she said.

Jalpaiguri district magistrate, Moumita Godara Basu and the mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Gautam Deb have been sent to the meet family members of the dead student, Banerjee added. Banerjee, who campaigned for her party in Meghalaya on Wednesday, had reached Siliguri the same night. She left for Kolkata on Thursday.