Jumbo tramples Man, destroys House in Lakhanpur Block , Villagers blocks NH-49 Highway

Jharsuguda: A 71-year-old man was killed by a jumbo in Jharsuguda district on the wee hour of Tuesday. The deceased was identified as Budharam Munda of Bichhuapada of Kudaloi Village under Lakhanpur police limits.

The angry villagers had blocked NH-49 for more than 5 hours in demand of compensation and also taking steps to caught the elephant immediately.

Till the filling of this report, the Villagers had kept the NH-49 Highway blocked.

As per the relative of Budharam Munda, on Monday night we had our food and were sleeping in our house and at around 1 O’clock, An elephant had broken the house door and created rampage, in fear the family members had run away from the house to a safe place, �We didn’t know when Budharam was caught and trampled to death by the elephant. If the forest officials had given us early information about the elephant we would have taken some precautions. ”

“Recently a villager was also killed in a similar way by the elephant at Singharpur Village, some incident had also taken place at Pandri Village under Lakhanpur Block but forest officials are not so alert. They should take steps how to save people’s life. Our demand is that the elephant should be caught immediately by any means and should be shifted to another place.” Said Biranchi Sahu, a villager

“We think there is more than one elephant, it’s very unfortunate that one person has died.We have been tracking this elephant since one month, after few days the elephant had gone to Pandri Jungle, yesterday night it has come back. It is one of the saddened news that at least two casualties have been taken place recently. We are arranging a special squad at this village from Tuesday onwards and we are taking steps how to shift this elephant from this place. The deceased victim’s family would get Rs. 10,000 compensation and further they would get compensation as per the government norms. Additionally, they would get Rs.10,000 compensation for House damage and would also recommend a house under Biju Pucca Ghar Scheme.

It’s unfortunate that the elephant has stayed at this place for more than a month.� The elephant has been a peculiar behaviour of breaking the house door and entering the house. This type of behaviour is rarely seen.” said Arjun Behera, DFO, Jharsuguda