Incidents of elephant rampage on the rise in India

January 8, 2013 – INDIA – A man sustained fractures while standing crops of watermelon were damaged as a herd of elephants went on a rampage on the outskirts of Kamasumudra village near here on Wednesday. A herd of 32 jumbos from the Tamil Nadu forests is wrecking havoc by destroying crops in the nearby fields. The elephants are moving in two groups – one comprising 14 jumbos which have camped near Kamasamudra and another with 18 elephants is roaming at the Yaragol dam project site. The jumbos have entered Karnataka from Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu and are moving on the natural elephant corridor. Availability of water and fodder all along the way is said to be facilitating their onward journey. The elephants which stray on this route usually return to V Kote via Kuppam. A calf is also part of the herd. Ansar, a resident of Bheemanaganahalli suffered fracture of chest bones after an elephant threw him with its trunk. He was admitted to RL Jalappa Hospital in Kolar. Officials from the Forest department visited forest areas in Yaragol. However, they have decided to wait for some time to gauge the further movement of the jumbos. –Deccan Herald

Wild dogs kill 4 in Mexico: MEXICO CITY – Wild dogs mauled and killed four people whose bodies were found over the past two weeks in a park on the edge of Mexico City, authorities said Monday. In one case, a teenage girl frantically called her sister with her cell phone to plead for help as the attack took place. Neighbors of the Cerro de la Estrella, a partly wooded, hilltop park surrounded by the city’s poor and populous Iztapalapa district, first found the bodies of a 26-year-old woman and a 1-year-old child in the area on Dec. 29, authorities in Mexico’s capital said. The woman, Shunashi Mendoza, was missing her left arm, and prosecutors said that both she and the boy had bled to death and been partially eaten. Then on Friday visitors to the same park found the bodies of a teenage couple who had also bled to death. “Experts have established that due to the gravity of the wounds, at least 10 dogs were involved in each attack,” Mexico City prosecutors said in a statement. In the second attack, Alejandra Ruiz, 15, and her boyfriend Samuel Martinez, 16, had gone to the park Friday afternoon. The girl called her sister Diana Ruiz at around 7 p.m. pleading for help. “Several dogs are attacking us, help me!” the girl screamed. The call then stopped. Ruiz told Milenio Television she thought her sister was joking and still doesn’t believe her sister was killed by dogs despite the call. “What kind of dog can tear the skin from your whole arm and leave just bone and if it was an attack dog why didn’t it attack her neck?” Ruiz asked. “What’s most shocking is that one of her breasts was mutilated.” She said she later visited the place of the attack and saw no pools of blood. “There needs to be a thorough investigation,” she added. –Yahoo News