A two-year-old girl and four others were trampled to death by a wild elephant in Odisha’s Angul district on Thursday night, the casualty count being the biggest in a tusker attack in a single day, according to officials familiar with the man-animal conflict in the state.
Kalia Saar, a 40-year-old brick kiln worker of Sandha village, was asleep with his daughters, aged 2 and 12, on the verandah of their house when the elephant crushed them to death, the officials said. The beast then trampled another woman asleep in front of a neighbouring house. Later, it killed a 70-year-old man who had stepped out to relieve himself in the nearby Santhapada village.
Angry over the killings, the residents of the two villages staged a road block on Friday morning, demanding adequate compensation to the family of the deceased. Forest authorities have offered an immediate compensation of Rs 40,000 to the surviving members of Saar’s family, including his wife.
At least 92 people were killed by elephants in Odisha in 2018-19, officials said.
“The fragmentation of elephant corridors is forcing wild animals to head towards human habitations,” said Biswajit Mohanty of the Wildlife Society of Odisha.
Officials said the Delhi-based NGO, Wildlife Trust of India, was given ~2.67 crore to prepare an elephant conflict mitigation plan in 2016, but claimed it has yet to submit its final report. Several draft reports have, however, been submitted.
First Published:
Apr 20, 2019 00:21 IST
Source: HindustanTimes