ROURKELA: An 18-month-old-baby was killed while her mother sustained injuries after an elephant attacked them in a remote village within Hathibari police limits in Rourkela Forest Division of Sundargarh district on Wednesday evening.
The woman, Anima was on way to home holding her child, Anushka along with her husband Manuel at around 7 pm when she was knocked down by the elephant. Anushka fell on the ground following which the pachyderm held the child with the trunk and thrashed her to death.
Birmitrapur ranger Nutan Hembram said Anima is in shock and her husband was shaken to describe how the elephant killed their child. The village is close to a forest and it seems the elephant suddenly appeared in front of them as a result of which Anima lost balance and fell on the ground.
It is possible that the child was thrashed to death by the elephant as one side of her face was disfigured.
Anushka’s body was handed over to her parents after autopsy and Anima is recuperating at the Rourkela Government Hospital.
Elephant found dead, tusks missing
Dhenkanal: Adding to the number of poaching cases reported from Odisha forests, an elephant was killed by poachers and its tusks were found missing in Hindol reserve forest. On Tuesday, poachers fired at around 10 forest staff from Dhenkanal who, being unarmed, fled to the Hindol range office. When the staff returned to the spot on Wednesday, they found the carcass of the elephant with its tusks missing. Autopsy on the carcass was conducted in the evening.
Dhenkanal DFO Prakash Chand Gogineni rushed to the spot on Thursday and said the forest personnel on duty in the reserve forest will now be armed with weapons to check recurrence of such incidents in future. He said a special squad has been constituted with personnel from Athagarh forest division to nab the culprits. Meanwhile, carcass of another elephant was found in Kandhara reserve forest on Thursday. The cause of the jumbo’s death is not yet known and the postmortem will be conducted on Friday. No external injuries were found on the carcass.