Seven killed by Indian elephant

Northern areas of India contain large numbers of Asian elephants

A rampaging elephant has killed at least seven people and injured 24 others in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, wildlife officials say.

They say that the female elephant was eventually shot and killed on the edge of the Jim Corbett National Park.

Officials say locals were trampled as they tried to scare it away when it started destroying their crops.

There have been several recent incidents in which villagers have been killed by wild animals.

Conservationists say this is because the natural habitats of the elephants are shrinking - largely because of human encroachment on their territory - and the beasts have to travel further for food.

They say that the elephant in the latest incident had apparently entered the village after becoming separated from its herd.

"The people surrounded it and started shouting and screaming at the elephant which went berserk," Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, told the AP news agency.

Amit Chandola, a spokesman for the government of Uttarakhand state, said that wildlife officials had been ordered to shoot and kill the elephant.

The park, one of India's most popular, is about 600km (370 miles) east of Delhi.