Bhubaneswar: Two persons were allegedly trampled to death by wild elephants in separate incidents on Tuesday.
In the first incident, a 65-year-old man named Gandharba Sahu was killed by an elephant in Mushapapuli village under the Angul forest range. The incident occurred around 6:30 am this morning when Gandharba had gone to a jungle close to his village. The elephant attacked him and crushed his head, leading to his immediate death on the spot.
In a separate incident, a woman identified as Pramila Raul (40), wife of Pankaj Roul, was killed by a tusker in Nuagaon area under the Chhendipada forest range. Pramila, a resident of Jaripal village, was visiting her daughter’s house and had gone to collect mangoes when the elephant attacked and trampled her.
Forest department officials and police reached both spots and sent the bodies for post-mortem examination at Chhendipada Health Centre.
These back-to-back fatalities have heightened fear among villagers living on the fringes of forests in Angul district, where human-elephant conflict has been a persistent issue.
