A wild elephant killed an elderly person from the Lodha-Sabar tribe and severely injured his wife at the Kosafoila forest of Jhargram's Jamboni on Wednesday evening while they were returning from work.

Foresters on Thursday morning recovered the body and rescued the injured woman who spent the night inside the forest with her deceased husband.

According to a villager, Krishna Sabar, 66, and his wife Renu Sabar, 61, both farm labourers, went to a nearby village for work. As the duo came in the path of the wild animal, they were immediately attacked.

Though no one saw the elephant attack the couple, a forester said the type of injuries and basic information from the injured woman revealed an elephant attack. The injured woman is admitted to Jhargram super-speciality Hospital in a critical condition. Her left leg has received multiple fractures.

"The duo were returning home through the forest road and they probably did not know that we have issued an alert of the arrival of a wild elephant in the area from Jharkhand. We had asked villagers not to enter the forest after the elephant entered that zone," said a forester in Jhargram.

Nirmal Sabar, a nephew of the couple, said it was shocking that his uncle was dead and his aunt had to spend the entire night inside the forest in a severely injured condition with the body of her husband.

"However, we did not know about the incident in time. No one moved inside the forest on Wednesday after an alert from foresters about the elephants. Foresters came to know about the incident on Thursday morning while patrolling the area," said Nirmal.