The officials said the elephants crushed eight people and damaged several houses while stomping through villages in the state of Mizoram, the Press Trust of India reported Thursday.

"I was forced to give the order to kill the two elephants in a bid to save the lives of dozens of more villagers," H. Lalthlanglina, a Mizoram magistrate, told PTI.

"The beasts also damaged several houses in a radius of about 40 kilometers (25 miles)," said an Assam wildlife official.

Experts said the animals may have turned violent due to a lack of work and poor nutrition.

"No work and all rest makes the elephants more virile as they are not in a position to burn their energy. This phenomenon is called musth," Kushal Konwar Sarma, a professor at the College of Veterinary Science in Guwahati, India, told the PTI.