Hatadihi: Human rights activist Himanshu Shekhar Nayak has approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) demanding Rs15 lakh compensation to the family of each deceased after elephant attack took three lives in a matter of 13 days in Hatadihi area of Keonjhar district.
Nayak has done so on the basis of a news item published in the web portal of ‘Dharitri’ that highlights the rising cases of man-elephant conflict here. Apart from compensation, Nayak has also sought stringent action against the Forest department staff for dereliction of duty.
Reacting to the development, Anandapur DFO Ajit Satapathy and Hadgarh Ranger Surendra Hembram said that the affected families would be compensated according to the government provision.
That said, tension prevails in this area over increased instances of elephant attack as their forages into human habitat become more frequent.
The Forest department and the district administration, however, claimed that they are doing everything under their control to curb such incidents.
The Forest department employees and an eight-member team have been engaged in catching a rouge elephant that is causing mayhem in the area. They have, so far, not been able to trace it as it has reportedly sneaked into deep forest.
DFO Satapathy said that all necessary steps are being taken to catch the elephant.
As many as 30 elephants live in Hadgarh forest according to 2017 census. That said, because of rampant ingression of timber and stone mafias along with poachers, these wild animals are sneaking into nearby villages, where more than one thousand people live.
It may be mentioned here that Jagannath Mallick (53) of Nuarugudi village and Sanjulata Rout (52) of Maichaipada village were trampled to death May 17 and 18 respectively. Earlier an elephant claimed the life of Khukha Khandei (54) of Kushatikiri village.
PNN