Baripada: Two persons were killed Tuesday in elephant attacks in different districts of Odisha. The new deaths once more proved that there is no end to the man-elephant conflict in the state. In the first incident, an elderly man was trampled to death by a tusker in a field close to Dalak village under Begunia block in Khurda district. The deceased was identified as Debaraj Harichandan (63), a resident of the village. As per the locals, Debaraj went to a nearby field to relieve himself when he was attacked by the pachyderm. He tried to run to safety, but the elephant chased him down and trampled him. By the time other villagers rushed to Debraj’s rescue he had already breathed his last.
Irate villagers protested when Khurda Forest department officials arrived at the village. Personnel from the Begunia police station arrived at the spot and sent the body of the deceased for postmortem. The Khurda tehsildar’s office provided a compensation of Rs 10,000 to the deceased’s family from the Red Cross fund. In the second incident, a physically-challenged woman was killed by a tusker in Dahi village under Gajadi forest range in the Mayurbhanj district. The woman, identified as Sita (57), had gone with others to collect mahua flowers from the forest when an elephant attacked them.
While others managed to flee, the physically-challenged woman could not do so and lost her life. After getting the news, forester Sushil Mohanta reached the spot. “As per government policy financial assistance will be provided to the deceased’s family,” Mohanta said.
