Maya Murmu, a 70-year-old woman, was reportedly trampled to death by an elephant only for her family to witness her get crushed again by the same elephant.
The second trampling occurred Thursday morning during her funeral in Raipal village, Eastern India, according to multiple reports.
Elephant kills woman in India and returns to trample on her corpse at funeral after lifting her body from pyre as family performed last rites https://t.co/k7MYUkAc06
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) June 12, 2022
Murmu was collecting water from a tubewell in the Raipal village as the wild beast abruptly appeared, according to the Independent and the Daily Mail. She reportedly passed away later that day in the hospital due to the injuries she suffered from being trampled.
The animal is believed to have escaped from the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, roughly 124 miles away from Raipal in Odisha state’s Mayurbhanj district in India.
The family members gathered later that day at her funeral to perform the last rite when the second trampling occurred, according to the Independent. The same elephant allegedly grappled Murmu’s body from the funeral pyre and trampled her again, astounding mourners as they looked on in horror. The funeral only continued after the elephant left the area.
Odisha has experienced a surge in the number of deaths due to elephants, according to separate reporting from The Independent.
The Indian government tries to curb such events by tagging elephants with radio collars and altering locals via text messages whenever the elephants wander close to human-populated areas, according to the Daily Mail. (RELATED: A Parade Of Wild Elephants Is Traveling 300 Miles Towards A City And No One Knows Why)