Telkoi: There is no let-up in elephant menace in Telkoi range of Keonjhar district. The animals have been on a damaging spree making life miserable for villagers.
A person was critically wounded in elephant attack while houses in several villages were pulled down by stray elephants.
A tusker bulldozed the house of villager Bijay Pradhan, 42, at Sirigida Monday night. The animal attacked him leaving him critically wounded.
The victim was admitted to Telkoi Community Health Centre (CHC) and later shifted to the district headquarters hospital Tuesday as his condition deteriorated. Later, he was shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
The elephant has also devoured paddy stocked in several villagers.
Forest ranger Pramod Kumar Sethi said efforts were on to drive away the pachyderms from the area. Aggrieved villagers have demanded financial assistance to the injured person and compensation for the loss of crop.
The villagers also accused the forest department personnel of failure to drive away the animals.
Gradually, discontentment among local people is brewing.
They lamented that in the day time, elephants were holed up in forests and come out to damage paddy at night.
The farmers alleged that the forest officials have confined their responsibilities to just supplying crackers while crops get damaged.
Elephant herds have extensively damaged crops in other areas too. The frequent visits of animals to farmlands have robed the sleep of the farmers.