ROURKELA: Two minor girls, both siblings, were trampled to death by an elephant in a village under Gurundia block of Sundargarh district when the pachyderm razed the poor family’s hut late on Saturday night.
In a separate elephant attack around the same time, a youth was killed in Sol village in the same forest range of the division, in yet another example of escalating man-animal conflict in the region.
The sisters were three and 12 years old and lived with their family in Mundabasti of Kantapali village under Tamra range of Bonai division. Sources said, the elephant brought down their earthen hut made of twigs and polythene sheet and trampled the two at around 11.30 pm. Their mother, another sibling and grandfather, however, had a narrow escape.
Gurundia sarpanch Pravakar Munda said a single tusker was responsible for the incident. The old man who walked with a stick and the woman with her seven-year-old child escaped to safety but her two daughters met with a tragic end under the feet of the elephant. Munda said the family lived in abject penury and their makeshift house could neither provide protection from elephants nor the chilling winter night.
Gurundia police on Sunday sent the bodies for postmortem. A local forest official said the tusker moved from Koida forest range and travelling through the forests of Rourkela division entered Tamra range and caused the havoc.
It later moved on to the nearby forest. In the second incident, a youth, identified as Rajesh Munda, was trampled to death by another elephant when he came out of his house.
Regional chief conservator of forests, Rourkela P Ramaswamy described the death of two children as most unfortunate. Before the incident, the elephant squad was present near the site yet the incident could not be prevented. The division will strengthen elephant tracking and early warning system across vulnerable areas, the RCCF said adding, efforts are underway to use latest technologies to monitor elephant movement.
On Friday night, contractual forest workers had gone into Rushimath forests to install trap cameras when one of them was attacked and suffered critical injuries by an elephant. After this, instructions were issued to field staff to follow safety protocols and collect prior information about elephant presence through drone cameras before entering the forests.
With three deaths in a single night, the total human casualties in elephant attacks has risen to 11 in Bonai forest division in the current calendar year.
Similarly, with death of an under-treatment villager Nane Dhanwar (54) on December 10 at a hospital at Rourkela, death toll in elephant attacks in adjoining Rourkela forest division has jumped to 12 this year.