A man in India was trampled to death by a wild elephant while he attempted to click a selfie in the western state of Maharashtra.
Shashikant Ramchandra Satre, a 23-year-old electrician, was laying cable nearby on Thursday when he learned about a wild tusker roaming in the Gadchiroli forest.
Satre, along with two of his friends reportedly decided to venture inside the forest to get a glimpse of the elephant. Upon spotting the animal, he tried to click a selfie from a distance, NDTV reported.
However, the elephant, named CME3 by forest officials, turned aggressive and trampled Satre under its feet. The other two men managed to save their lives and escape from the area.
Forest officials have described the tusker as huge and aggressive, who entered the Gadchiroli forest in Maharashtra from neighbouring Chhattisgarh state.
The elephant had killed at least seven others between November 2023 to May 2024 in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Maharashtra states, the Times of India reported.
"We have already informed nearby villages to take precautions and posted forest staff in each village," said Vivek Khandekar, Maharashtra's principal chief conservator of forests.
"Our field staff, along with the Rapid Rescue Team, are already active in the area and informing the locals about the presence of wild elephants and does and don'ts while dealing with them," he told the Indian daily.
India reportedly has recorded the highest number of selfie deaths followed by the US and Russia.
A man in southern India was mauled to death earlier in February by an Asiatic lion after he jumped into his enclosure to take a selfie with the animal.
Prahlad Gujjar, 38, scaled a 12ft-high fence and jumped into the lion’s enclosure at Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in Tirupati on Thursday, Andhra Pradesh, zoo officials said.
In 2021, another man was trampled to death by an elephant while he tried to take a selfie with it the animal in Chhattisgarh.
There have been 379 selfie-related deaths recorded worldwide between 2008 and 2021, according to a study published in the Journal of Travel Medicine.
