Elephants eat up Mid-Day Meal rice in Keonjhar

Keonjhar: Students at Jyotipur Upper Primary School had to go without Mid-Day Meal (MDM) today as a herd of elephants ate up their MDM rice stored in the school under Champua block in the district.

“Fifteen elephants rampaged into our school yesterday evening by demolishing the boundary wall and ate up everything after breaking the window,” said a panicked student Pushpanjali Dehuri.

Besides eating and destroying the MDM rice, the herd of nearly 19 elephants damaged many houses at Jyotipur, Parudiposi and Bardhana villages under Champua Range.

Elephants come every year to Champua and damage property, alleged the villagers. They demanded a permanent solution to this menace like construction of a guard wall or corridor to restrict elephants.

After getting information forest officials reached the village and tried to ward off the elephants and promised to provide compensation to the affected people.

Deputy Ranger of Champua Pitambar Nayak said, "The elephants have damaged some crops and houses, they also ate food from a school. People are complaining and we are trying to arrange for compensation after assessing damage. A squad of our forest staff is trying to ward them off."