Dhenkanal/Angul: Two people including a woman were killed in separate incidents of elephant attacks in Dhenkanal and Angul districts Monday.
In the first incident, an elderly man Mangaraj Patra, 65, of Gunudei village under Hindol Road police outpost limits in Dhenkanal district was killed in a tusker attack when he was plucking mangoes at an orchard.
Mangaraj had recently retired from service in the local high school. Tension prevailed in the locality following the incident with the locals claiming that Mangaraj was killed by the same tusker which had earlier killed five people in Talcher and many in Parjang. The locals staged a blockade on National Highway-55.
The agitation threw traffic out of gear from 8 am to 10 am as hundreds of vehicles were left stranded on either side of the road.
The agitators relented after Odapada tehsildar Nibedita Swain, Motanga IIC Namita Nayak and Sadar forest ranger Manwar Khan rushed to the spot and held talks with them.
The forest department gave away an ex-gratia of Rs 40,000 to the bereaved family while the tehsildar assured them of further financial assistance from the Red Cross on behalf of the district administration.
Motanga police registered a case and sent the body for post-mortem. Assistant conservator of forest Jeetndranath Das said forest officials were keeping a close watch on the movement of the tusker which has been moving in the area for the last 20 days.
In the second incident, an elderly woman was trampled to death by a tusker at Taltaila village near Kanloi reserve forest under Chhendipada forest range in this district Monday.
The deceased was identified as Khedi Majhi, 68, wife of Durjyadhan Majhi.
The incident sparked tension in the locality as family members and villagers demanded compensation. Forest officials and police reached the spot and pacified the irate people after holding discussions with them.
Sources in the forest department said Khedi and her daughter-in-law had gone to a cashew orchard near the compartment seven of the forest in the morning. As they were busy plucking cashew nuts, they inadvertently came close to a tusker.
The elephant suddenly attacked the dup. Though Khedi’s daughter-in-law managed to escape unhurt, the former was not so fortunate. The pachyderm trampled her to death.