A 62-year-old man has been killed by a wild elephant in a village near a national park in south-central Nepal, an official disclosed on Wednesday.

The president of a local forest users’ group, Basu Dhungana, disclosed that the elephant on Tuesday dragged the man about 25 metres from the road and killed him near Chitwan National Park.

Dhungana said growth in the population of wild elephants had led to death and destruction in the area.

“We are building walls between human settlements and forest. It will be completed in a few years,” he said of local measures aimed at tackling the human-wildlife conflict.

A 50-year-old man was killed by a wild elephant on a road near a protected area in the country’s southeast in 2018.

Encounters between wild animals and humans have increased in recent years in Nepal, raising concerns about the safety of people living near protected areas.

NAN