Rengali: An elephant, estranged from its herd, pulled down a house in the wee hours of Thursday in Patamal village under Chatarbaga police limits (Rengali forest division) in Sambalpur district, killing a girl child and leaving three others of a family critical.
The deceased was identified as Gitanjali Munda (5), while the injured were her father Rajkumar Munda (28), mother Mukata Munda (25) and sister Gouri Munda (3).
According to reports, the elephant strayed into the village at about 3 am Thursday and pulled down the house when the family was asleep. All the family members suffered critical injuries as a portion of a wall caved in on them. The four were rescued by the villagers and taken to the district headquarters hospital. However, Gitanjali succumbed to her injuries on the way. The three others were undergoing treatment.
While local MLA Ramesh Patua visited the village, divisional forest officials Harihar Patra along with a team of forest officials went to the spot as well as the hospital to take stock of the situation.
Meanwhile, the forest department has provided 10 per cent of the total compensation of Rs 4 lakh that is given to the kin of the deceased, it was learnt.
This is the same elephant, which got separated from its herd and took the life of a person at Baham under Goudapali police outpost under Jamankira police limits, claimed locals.
Details about the incident would be learnt after the completion of the probe, a forest official said.
Presence of elephants triggers panic in villages
Champua: A herd of 23 elephants has entered into Champua forest range, causing fear among the locals. They entered the region after crossing a river at Kankada village. After passing through Binika, Katulikana, Sarei, Tinutuna, Sashang and Patala Nursery, the herd camped in the Razia forest under Kalika Prasad reserve forest.
Locals said they were apprehensive of crops being damaged by the elephants. The forest department hardly did anything to drive elephants back to the forests. Though the officials were informed about the presence of elephants, they failed to turn up.
“This is the reason our crops and vegetables are lost,” some locals said. Though the villagers helped the forest department in driving away the pachyderms, the insufficient stock of firecrackers and absence of a trained squad stood as hurdle in the operation. The panicked villagers have demanded that the forest department take immediate steps to drive away the herd.
Similar is the case at Surapratappur village near Bhuban in Dhenkanal district. Twelve elephants were spotted at Kalunigoda near Surapratappur Thursday. They had reached Jamunakote jungle through river Brahmani and stayed back at Kalunigoda jungle when night fell.
While the locals are in fear, forest officials of Bhuban said they were keeping track of the animals’ movements.