Kolkata: Three women were trampled to death by wild elephants in West Bengal's Alipurduar district on Thursday, officials said.
Chandamani Orao, Sukurmoni Lohar and Rekha Burman were among 10 women of Dakshin Mendabari village in Kalchini block who went to the Chilapata forest in the afternoon to collect firewood, they said.
They came face to face with a herd of wild elephants. Six women of the group could escape from the forest and go to their village, but four others could not.
When they returned to the forest with people of the village and forest personnel, disfigured bodies of the three women were found and another woman was rescued in an injured condition, officials said.
The injured woman, identified as Nima Charwar, was admitted to the Alipurduar Sadar hospital, officials said.
The bodies of the deceased women were sent for post-mortem examinations, they said.
