Dhenkanal: In yet another incident of man-animal conflict, three persons including two girl students were injured in separate incidents of elephant attacks at Pandua village under Tumusinga police limits in Dhenkanal district Monday.
The victims were identified as Swarnalaxmi Behera of Puta Sahi, Priyanka Priyadarshini of Gurujanga village and Anama Sahu, a dhaba worker, of Pandua. The injured girls were students of Plus Two (second year) Science in Pandua College.
The first incident occurred when the girls were on their way to attend tuition classes in Pandua on their bicycles. They came face to face with an elephant herd. One of the pachyderms pushed a girl with its trunk while another fell down off the bicycle out of fear.
The two girls were first rushed to Aanlabereni community health centre and later shifted to the district headquarters hospital in Dhenkanal.
In the second incident, an elephant attacked Anama Sahu (55) of Keonjhar district, when he was attending nature’s call in Pandua village.
He used to work in a dhaba in the village. He was rushed to the Aanlabereni community health centre in a critical condition. The twin incidents of elephant attacks have spread panic among the residents in the area. They urged the forest officials to intervene and rescue them from the wrath of the pachyderms.
PNN