Lakhimpur Kheri, Nov 12 (IANS): A 17-year-old teenager was trampled to death by an elephant in the buffer forests of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district while he was taking photographs of a herd of the tuskers.

The incident took place on Thursday afternoon when Mangat Singh, son of a farmer, moved closer to the herd while taking their pictures.

A tusker attacked him, killing him on the spot.

Officials said the herd had been camping in Dalrajpur and its neighbouring village Taparpurva since earlier this week and had destroyed standing sugarcane crop and banana trees in the area.

Meanwhile, a video has surfaced, showing an unidentified person opening fire at a tusker that had a narrow escape.

The elephant, however, went berserk, uprooting an electric pole and destroying sugarcane crop. Officials claimed that the video was shot before the tusker killed the youth.

Deputy director, DTR (buffer), Anil Patel said that they have sent a team to the village to monitor the situation.

"We are trying to push the herd into the wild. Besides, we will also investigate whether the bullet was fired in the air or aimed at the elephant," he said.

This is the second such incident within a month when a man was killed by a wild elephant.

On October 11, a wild elephant had killed a youth while he was attempting to take a selfie in the Mohammadi range of the Reserve.