BARIPADA: A 40-year-old man was trampled to death by an elephant in the wee hours of Saturday at Daddud village under Shyamakhunta block of Mayurbhanj district here.
The victim, Madhusudan Pande, had gone to a nearby field to attend the call of nature when he came face-to-face with the tusker. Though Pande tried to run away, the jumbo dragged him by its trunk and slammed him on the ground before trampling him.
Pande sustained severe injuries on his chest and was rushed to the Pandit Raghunath Murmu medical college and hospital in Baripada where doctors declared him dead.
Sources said the jumbo was a part of the herd of 45 elephants from Dalma forest in Jharkhand that had been roaming in Baripada forest division area since the last few months. This is reportedly the second killing by the elephant herd till now. Forest officials have been making their best efforts to chase the herd away to Jharkhand but to no avail.
Forester of Baripada range Sunil Kumar Mohanta said the herd had been roaming in Badasahi section for the last couple of days and moved to Shyamakhunta on Friday night. The Forest department had alerted its Energy counterpart about the same and had asked it to disconnect power supply in the area for the safety of the elephants and people, he added.
“The power supply was disconnected from 2 am and later restored after 34 elephants moved to Machanbandha reserve forest and 11 others entered Damodarpur area near Baripada town. Forest officials also cautioned the villagers not to move out of their houses. However despite that, Pande went out and was attacked by the tusker,” the forester said.
Divisional forest officer A Uma Mahesh has advised the range officers to keep a track of the elephants’ movement round the clock. The Forest department has, meanwhile, initially paid Rs 60,000 to the deceased’s family and the remaining sum would be provided after receiving postmortem report, Mohanta added.
