Cuttack/Bhanjanagar: In two separate incidents reported from Cuttack and Ganjam districts Friday, a man was trampled to death by a herd of elephants and an elephant’s carcass was spotted respectively.
The victim of the man-elephant conflict has been identified as Ratnakar Behera, a resident of Budhalinga village in Choudwar. Behera had gone to his farmland to harvest paddy near Bharandi area of Nuagaon under Choudwar police limits early Friday morning. At the farmland, he came face to face with a herd of as many as 12 elephants. Before he could escape, a jumbo caught him with its trunk, put him on the ground and trampled over him, causing his death on the spot.
Later, police and forest department officers, on being informed, reached the spot and launched an investigation.
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In the second incident, a carcass of an elephant was found lying in Durgaprasad jungle under Kujagarh range under North Ghumusar forest division in Ganjam district Friday morning.
After getting information, DFO Abhay Kant Dalei and ACF Sudarshan Badi reached the spot and carried out an investigation. They said they are yet to ascertain the cause of the jumbo’s death. ‘The post mortem report will provide us some lead regarding it,” they maintained.
According to local people, other members of the herd were seen standing at a distance from the carcass. It was when forest department officials reached the spot and a crowd gathered there that the herd left the spot and went into the jungle.
PNN
