Sundargarh: A woman was killed after being trampled by a tusker in the wee hours of Saturday at Ushumundi village under Koida Range in Sundargarh district.
The deceased has been identified as Itawari Bhadra.
According to sources, a herd of elephants strayed into the village in search of food late at night. Bhadra, who was sleeping at her residence woke up to the sounds of elephants and came out of the house. She started running to save her life, but one of the elephants chased her and trampled her to death.
On a tip-off, forest department officials seized the body and sent it for post-mortem.
It may be noted that as many as 996 people were trampled to death by elephants in the state between 2013 and 2023. During the same period, 794 elephants died in the state due to human-elephant conflicts, according to official sources.
In 2022-2023, as many as 150 people died in human-elephant conflict which is an all-time high in the decade.
