Post News Network
Champua, Jan 2: Even as elephant menace continues in resource-rich Keonjhar district, a resident of Patala village under Champua police limits was trampled to death Thursday night.
Incensed over the incident, scores of villagers blocked the national highway along with the body. They demanded compensation for the bereaved family. Sources said Rudra Nayak of the village woke up at night to relieve himself on the street. He had no idea that a tusker was near. The animal came from nowhere and trampled him to death.
Not just that, the pachyderm dragged his body a few yards before fleeing into the nearby forest. The village, nearly six km from Chapua forest range office, has been witnessing frequent intrusion of elephants and resultant mayhem.
The villagers alleged that the forest department has not taken adequate preventive measures against the elephant menace despite recurrence of their mayhem. Along with Nayak’s body, scores of residents trooped to the national highway and staged a protest, demanding adequate compensation for the bereaved family. Over a hundred vehicles were stranded on both sides of the road due to blockade.
Informed, local police, accompanied by Champua IIC and other senior officials, rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the agitating people. Later, Sridhar Nayak, project administrator of the Integrated Tribal development Agency, tehsildar Narayan Chandra Dhal and revenue inspector Adikand Behera also tried to placate angry locals.
They agreed to some of their demands like immediate release of compensation, Rs 10,000 for funeral rites of the deceased, a temporary job for Nayak’s son in the forest department, and a housing unit for the bereaved family under Indira Awas Yojana. The protesting villagers withdrew their road blockade only after that. In the past one year, the village has lost three residents to elephant menace.