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To: Mohan Marette who wrote (9648)	11/18/1999 1:36:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

Assam: American tourist killed in elephant fight allindia.com Syed Zarir Hussain November 18, 1999, 16:45 Hrs (IST) Guwahati: In a bizarre incident, an American tourist was trampled to death and a cow elephant gored by a tusker in the famous Kaziranga National Park of the northeast Indian state of Assam. Two other Americans and a 'mahout', an elephant keeper, were critically wounded in the incident, wildlife officials said. The incident took place inside the 430-sq km park, famous for its one-horned rhinoceros and located 220 km east of state capital Guwahati, when a group of tourists was riding on elephant back on Wednesday for a close look at the abundant wildlife. Eighty-year-old Mead Bumder, a resident of Boston, died of severe injuries after she fell from the cow elephant which was charged from behind by a tusker, which was also carrying tourists. The American woman apparently died of shock resulting out of serious leg and head injuries on the way to a hospital near the park. Bumder's 24-year-old grandson Matthew Arndt from Chicago and another US national, H Howard Jhum, 30, were injured. The 'mahout' also sustained serious injuries and is at the moment battling for life at a local hospital. The incident took place when eight tame elephants, owned by the park authorities, were carrying foreign and domestic tourists deep inside the sanctuary for a routine one-hour ride. A tusker wanted to overtake the female elephant which was moving ahead through a narrow path. "The tusker started butting the female elephant from behind after failing to overtake her. Unable to withstand the pressure from the huge tusker, the cow elephant fell down, along with the three American tourists, resulting in the death of a lady, besides injuring her grandson, a fellow American tourist and the 'mahout'," Ariz Ahmed, the Additional District Magistrate of Golaghat, told India Abroad News Service on the telephone. A park official said the tusker then started goring the grounded cow elephant and "tore apart her stomach with its tusks," killing the pachyderm. "It was the first time in the history of Kaziranga that such a bizarre incident took place," Ahmed said. An estimated 500 tourists, including hundreds of foreigners, visit the park. Wildlife officials are now keeping the tusker under observation to ensure that it does not go "berserk or mad". Bumder's body is being flown to Delhi today for embalming before the journey to Boston. "It was a horrific and tragic sight to see the elephant lying in a pool of blood with its intestines strewn all over the place. And the tragedy became all the more grave when news came in that the lady tourist died on way to hospital," a park warden said. Elephant experts says the tusker might have gone 'mast', a temporary state of agitation, wanting to "mate" with the cow elephant which was moving ahead, resulting in its unnatural behaviour. India Abroad News Service