Man loses fourth relative to same ‘human hunter’ elephant that has wiped out 25 victims

The rogue elephant has a notorious reputation in Nepal, having killed 25 people and survived being shot twice, despite officials claiming he had died from the gun shot wounds

A man who saw both his parents killed by an elephant in 2012 has now tragically lost two more relatives to the same beast despite moving house specifically to avoid it.

Shanichara Bote, from Madi, Nepal lost his mother and father back in December 2012 after they were trampled to death near a national park by a wild elephant named Dhurbe.

The rogue nelly had already garnered a reputation for violent outbursts, according to a report by Nepalese news outlet The Kathmandu Post.

Following the tragic double killing, Shanichara reportedly moved house specifically to avoid the beast, relocating 30km away to the village of Jagatpur on the other side of the region’s Reu River.

However, in a cruel twist, Dhurbe struck again nearly fourteen years later last Sunday (June 28), smashing into his new home and killing his four-year-old grandson Bharat and his 25-year-old daughter-in-law Ashika.

A heartbroken Shanichara said in an interview with the Post that the same creature had “found us again”, adding that “there is nowhere left for us to run” following this latest attack.

He said: “The constant terror of wild elephants forced us to sell what we had and move to Jagatpur.

“We believed that moving across the major rivers would keep us safe. But after all these years, the exact same elephant found us again, raided our home and took my daughter-in-law and my little grandson. There is nowhere left for us to run.”

Shanichara’s four family members are by no means Dhurbe only victims, with the notoriously violent creature being linked to the deaths of at least 25 people across that part of Nepal.

A spokesperson for Chitwan National Park, where Dhurbe is believed to live, told the Post that they have been trying to isolate the “highly aggressive male elephant” for some time.

Park information officer Abinash Thapa Magar explained: “We have been using a satellite tracking collar to monitor the movements of this highly aggressive male elephant.

“Our data showed that his location was around the perimeter of the incident site on Saturday night.

“Before this incident, Dhurbe had officially claimed 23 human lives. With these two latest casualties in Jagatpur, the confirmed death toll linked to this single elephant has now risen to 25.”

Among Dhurbe’s reported victims are two army members who were assigned with protecting elephants from poachers.

The violent creature has been shot twice by hunters attempting to stop its killing spree, with officials briefly believing the creature had died back in 2012 from its bullet wounds.

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