Overview
- A single wild bull known as Dhurbe has stalked one family for 14 years and most recently trampled to death a 25‑year‑old woman and her four‑year‑old son, bringing the elephant’s confirmed human toll to 25.
- The Bote family relocated across major rivers after the 2012 killings but Dhurbe tracked them to their Jagatpur home and collided with the mud‑walled house during a nighttime raid.
- Chitwan National Park shows satellite/GPS collar logs placing Dhurbe around the incident site, but the current collar only transmits hourly updates that officials say left operational gaps in rapid response.
- Authorities have launched 24‑hour patrols with park veterinarians and the Nepali Army and plan to tranquilize the elephant, shorten its tusks, and fit a new near‑real‑time collar to contain him.
- Experts link Dhurbe’s repeated attacks to solitary male dispersal and shrinking habitat near Chitwan National Park, and the killings have fuelled local protests and renewed pressure on wildlife management and legal options.