Jharsuguda: Panic gripped at Kolabira village after a tusker strayed into the campus of Kolabira Community Health Center on Friday morning. Sources said, at 7:30 am elephant entered into the hospital campus. However, the tusker didn’t cause any harm to the hospital nor any patients.
The Kolabira Community Health Center is located in the heart of the Kolabira Village. Seeing the Jumbo entering the health centre, the hospital staffs present inside the Health centre had closed the door of the health centre to prevent it to enter inside.
“We saw an elephant had entered into the health centre campus at around 7:30 a.m., we had closed the doors of the health centre. At that time not many patients were present. However, it didn’t cause any damages to our health centre and neither any person, it had entered into the campus and went out through the main gate.” said a staff nurse of Kolabira Community Healthcare
“Our Kolabira block has been frequented by elephants for the last few days which has resulted in lots of problems, people are in a panic and generally avoid travelling at nights too. Many houses have been damaged by the elephants. Even lack of lights and proper equipment by the forest department, the forest squads are unable to chase these wild animals away properly.” said a Kolabira resident Sukant Sahu
Kolabira Forester Phanendra Kumar Meher said that “Around three tuskers have sneaked into the Mahulmunda Protected Reserve forest past three days. On Friday morning, among the three tuskers, one tusker had entered inside the campus of Kolabira Community Healthcare centre. Subsequently, the elephant squad tracking the tusker has chased the tusker into the Rengali Forest range, Sambalpur. Meanwhile, the movement of another two tuskers which are inside Mahalmunda Protected Reserve forest is being tracked by our elephant squad and will be chased away soon.”
