Wild elephant searching for beer tramples 3 to death

Three villagers were trampled to death and seven wounded by a wild Asiatic elephant searching for home-made rice beer in India's northeastern state of Assam, a wildlife official said yesterday.

"The elephant went on a rampage tearing apart huts and then attacked sleeping villagers killing three and seriously injuring seven more," said M. Rahman.

The tusker strayed from a big herd in the jungle and ransacked the village of Dalokgarupara Sunday morning in a hunt for fermented "chang" made from rice grains.

"The elephant herd came near the village looking for home-brewed rice beer. One of the animals strayed out from the herd and did the damage," Rahman said.

In the past two weeks, elephants have wreaked havoc in several parts of Assam as farmers harvest rice and use some of the grain to make a paint-peeling moonshine.

"For a stiff drink, elephants would blast through walls ... they go berserk, at times plundering granaries and tearing apart huts, besides inflicting fatal attacks on human beings," elephant expert Kushal Konwar Sharma told AFP.