Jumbo tramples man to death

Balangir: A jumbo trampled a man to death at Ghuchang village of Kantamal forest range in Boudh district on Tuesday morning.

The deceased has been identified as Bharat Bagarty, 35, of nearby Kutakheta village. The Kantamal forest range officer has reached the spot to take stock of the situation. The incident has created panic among the villagers in the area.

Sources said the incident occurred when Bagarty was going to Kantamal on a bicycle with his friend to attend a meeting. While riding through the forest road near Ghuchang village, the duo came face to face with a herd of elephants. Both tried to flee the spot leaving their bicycle behind. While Bagarty's friend had a narrow escape, he could not escape the elephant attack.

Villagers attribute such incidents to lack of water and food in the forest for the wild animal. Kantamal resident Shantanu Pradhan said wild animals, especially the elephants, were often straying into human habitations because of want of food and water in the forest. "Not much is done by the forest department to ensure sufficient water and food for animals in the forest. This makes them stray into human habitations resulting in such tragic incident like this one. Water scarcity is acute in the forest of the Kantamal range during the summer. This elephants' herd must have come near the village in search of water," he said.

Kantamal forest range officer-in-charge Saroj Kumar Mishra said the family of the deceased would be compensated according to the government rule. "We are keeping tabs on the herd. We have recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem," Mishra said.


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