Since last month, villages in southern Nepal have been living with a new terror: marauding elephants.
According to police, 17 people -- mostly women and children -- have been killed by wandering herds that are believed to have entered Nepal last month from the forests in northeastern India.
The latest killing was reported by police on Christmas Day. On Friday morning, a villager named Thule Ghimire, was killed by elephants in Setibhir village in Sarlahi district in central Nepal, the police headquarters in Kathmandu said.
With Ghimire's death, this week alone, three people were killed by the herds.
On Dec. 22, a 71-year-old woman, Jokho Devi Mahato, and a 12- year-old girl, Punam Mahato, in Bateshwor village in Dhanusha district, were trampled to death by a herd that had entered the village.
Of the 17, 11 victims are believed to have been killed by a single male elephant that went on the warpath after being injured by villagers who tried to chase it away by throwing stones and other things at it.
According to range officer Yadav Dhital, most of the attacks have occurred in Sindhuli, Dhanusha and Udaypur while one each has been killed in Bardiya and Sarlahi.
Dhital said the elephants have been following a traditional migratory route from India to Nepal followed by their ancestors hundreds of years ago.
"Forests are dwindling in Nepal due to human habitation and encroachment," he said. "Villagers who have started growing crops resent the
destruction of their cultivation by the elephants and try to chase them away, leading to skirmish between the animals and people."
Dhital said forest officials, helped by the media and nongovernmental organizations, have been campaigning in the affected areas, warning people not to provoke the animals or enter the forests alone.
Many of the victims are woman and children who went to the forests to collect firewood and fell foul of the resting animals. "People are also not aware that wild elephants are different from tame elephants," said Santosh Nepal of World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
In Sindhuli, for instance, an 18-year-old boy was killed after he went up to an invading tusker with flowers and garlands, thinking it to be an incarnation of the elephant god Ganesh, revered by Hindus, and tried to worship him.
Santosh Nepal said the government's decision this year to offer up to 150,000 Nepali rupees (some 2027 U.S. dollars) as compensation to the kin of those killed or injured or facing destruction of property is a positive step.
"If villagers are compensated for the crop or property they lose, they will be less belligerent," he said. "We had been urging the government to create such a fund for years. However, the current compensation is still not
ample and needs to be realistic. "
Since the elephant herds are often from India, WWF advocates talks with the Indian authorities to set up a joint fund that would help villagers in distress and also stave off attacks to elephants.
Elephants are an endangered species and therefore can't be killed in Nepal.
Nepal's Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has pledged to increase forest cover in the Himalayan nation to 40 percent of the total territory, which is expected to boost wildlife conservation.