RAIPUR: Mourners laying to rest a 60-year-old farmer, allegedly trampled to death by wild elephants less than 24 hours earlier, were sent scurrying for cover by a herd that stormed the funeral, charged at the crowd and wrecked several vehicles in Chhattisgarh’s forested Jashpur district. While the mourners asserted it was the same herd, forest officials were yet to verify the claim. They raised objection to locals frequenting forest regions despite being aware of routine elephant movement after dusk. “If at all it was the same herd, the tuskers may have been responding to a past provocation or distress. But such claims require verification through tracking data,” an official said. The victim, Joonas Bada of Gadakata village, had gone to his field with his sons Tuesday evening and decided to spend the night there despite warnings that a herd was sighted nearby. Officials said his body was found in the fields at dawn, surrounded by deep elephant footprints. Bada had disregarded advisories not to visit farms after dusk, forest officials said. Barely 24 hours later, as relatives and neighbours gathered for his late-night funeral, a herd charged towards the crowd, smashed three vehicles and forced people to flee to nearby houses. “We had just buried the body when the elephants appeared,” said a villager. Forest staff reached within minutes and managed to drive the elephants back into the forest after a tense half-hour operation. Bada’s death marked the eighth elephant-related fatality in Jashpur this year.