An elephant in Nepal has killed two members of a family that had relocated miles away to escape the animal’s wrath, raising the family’s death toll to four over a 14-year period.
In December 2012, the male elephant, named Dhurbe, killed Shanichara Bote’s parents in Madi, a town near Chitwan National Park. Bote then relocated his family nine miles away to Jagatpur, crossing the Rapti River in an attempt to find safety.
On July 4, the same elephant entered the family’s new home in Jagatpur, killing Bote’s daughter-in-law, Ashika Bote, 25, and his four-year-old grandson, Bharat Bote.
“We believed that moving across the major rivers would keep us safe,” Bote said. “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.”
The incident has raised the elephant’s documented human death toll to 25 since 2010.
Abinash Thapa Magar, a representative for Chitwan National Park, confirmed the tracking data. “Prior to this tragic incident, Dhurbe had officially claimed 23 human lives,” Magar said. “With these latest two casualties in Jagatpur, the confirmed number of fatalities attributed to this single elephant has now risen to 25.”
Magar added that authorities use a satellite tracking collar to monitor the animal. “Our data logs show that this location coordinates were pinned directly around the perimeter of the incident site on July 4.”
The collar pings the elephant’s location every hour, though the tracking has not prevented encounters. Following the 2012 attack, a force of 93 soldiers attempted to hunt the elephant. Soldiers shot the animal twice, but it escaped.
Dhurbe disappeared before returning in 2016. Wildlife officials fitted the animal with a replacement tracking collar in 2020 after the initial device failed, and deployed a third tracking collar in 2023.
