Injured wild elephant stomps KomChadLuek reporter to death in Chanthaburi
A reporter from the Thai language daily KomChadLuek was attacked and killed by a wild elephant in Chanthaburi’s Khao Khitchakut on Friday.
Parinya Kesarathikul, 46, was taking photographs of the heavily injured elephant, which panicked and charged at people nearby when it was hit with an antibiotics loaded dart. The elephant had sustained serious injuries after a fight with other members of the herd and had taken shelter in the swamp.
Patarapol “Lotter” Maneeorn, a veterinarian with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, had discovered the injured elephant in October and warned the animal would charge at all moving objects within a 50-metre vicinity due to stress and panic.
Parinya was taken to Khao Khitchakut Hospital at about 6.30pm and succumbed to his injuries later.
The reporter, who had covered the region for several news channels before joining KomChadLuek online in 2018, also volunteered as a rescue worker in his free time. No personal information about Parinya was available at press time.
