Two children were trampled to death and a man maimed as straying wild elephants destroyed two villages over the last 24 hours in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said on Monday. A girl was killed and six bamboo houses flattened as elephants ravaged a village near Cox's Bazar district town, 400 km (250 miles) from the capital Dhaka on Monday. A boy was killed and a man seriously injured when wild elephants strayed into another village in the same district on Sunday. Five houses were levelled by the rampaging elephants.

Picture of the elephant which was stuck in a swampy pit at Daldoli in Assam's Karbi Anglong district for five days. The animal died on Sunday. Picture of the elephant which was stuck in a swampy pit at Daldoli in Assam's Karbi Anglong district for five days. The animal died on Sunday.

DERGAON

With the requisite expertise and manpower at its disposal, the State Zoo is toying with the idea of going for a scientific elephant enclosure that would not only help in managing the tuskers in captivity efficiently, but would also give the opportunity to the visitors to get a better look at the majestic creature.

In a grubby courtroom in Manmad, a major train junction around 90 km from Nashik, a pitched battle is being fought to protect the rights of an elephant. Lakshmi has been in custody since April 14 after the Manmad police registered a complaint against the owner, alleging that he had "whipped and poked' the elephant, troubling and abusing it during a BSP rally to mark Ambedkar Jayanti.

BOKAKHAT, April 18

The fifth edition of the annual Kaziranga Elephant Festival will get under way at Kaziranga National Park tomorrow. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is scheduled to inaugurate the three-day festival at 10 in the morning. However, inclement weather may play spoilsport in the smooth conduct of the carnival. The organizers said about 60 elephants are likely to be used for the customary procession at 8 am.

In fresh incidents of elephant depredation, as many as 15 houses were destroyed and two cows killed by a marauding herd in Katonibari Tea Estate and Gangapar areas near Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary last night. According to sources, the jumbos entered the labour lines in the tea estate by crossing over the road. There are, however, no reports of any human casualty. The elephants, which number 22, are permanent residents of the wildlife sanctuary which is spread over an area of 19 square kilometres.

Cliche is a feature of bad journalism, it is said, but when it comes to the reporting of stories about country folk living in the human habitats close to the natural habitats of wild creatures in rural Sri Lanka pouring out their troubles to the media over the infiltration of wild elephants or other smaller wild animals into their territories, a local reporter's poor vocabulary is not enough to compile reports again and again on the same monotonous themes sans a cliche-ridden style.

A herd of wild elephant destroyed a number of huts and granaries of villagers in Bordoibam village under Barbaruah Police station last night.