Tusker tramples man to death in Odisha’s Bonai, fourth casualty in 15 days

In an unfortunate incident, a man was killed after he was attacked by a tusker while stepping out of his house to attend nature's call at Jakeikela panchayat under the Bonai range limits of Sundargarh district on Saturday.

Sources reported that the man, identified as 40-year-old Dharani Dhar Patra, had stepped out of his house at Rugudi Sahi of Jakeikela village to attend to nature’s call when the tusker charged at him suddenly crushing him near his doorstep. He reportedly lost his life immediately at the spot in the attack.

Meanwhile, tension prevailed at the incident site as locals demanded compensation. Till the last reports, no further updates or comments from forest officials or police could be obtained.

The elephant attack marked yet another casualty emerging from a human-tusker conflict in the district. Reportedly, in the last 15 days, four people have died in separate elephant attacks across three ranges of the Bonai Division, while one person remains critically injured and is currently undergoing treatment.

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In the last reported such case, a wild elephant had dragged two children out of their house and crushed them to death on December 15 in Kantapalli village under Bonai police station limits. The victims were a 12-year-old and a 3-year-old.

Sources had then indicated that the 12-year-old girl woke up due to commotion outside and attempted to escape, but the elephant caught her. It then trampled her and, sadly, did the same to the 3-year-old.

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The alarming cases of elephant attacks in Bonai also come after Forest and Environment Minister Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia admitted last month in the state assembly that human-elephant conflicts in Odisha were on the rise and that in the past three years, elephant attacks have claimed 668 lives and injured 509 people in the state.