Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Elephants trample three in Ganjam, one critical



--Villagers demand compensation to injureds’ family

BRAHMAPUR: In an unfortunate incident, a marauding elephant of a herd trampled three persons on the wee hours of Monday when they were fast asleep in their hut near Raghunathpur village of Rambha forest area under Khallikote forest range in Ganjam district. One among the three was critically injured and admitted in the MKCG Medical College and Hospital here.

They were identified as Gaura Pradhan (62), Biswambar Pallai (56) and Rohit Palai (22) of Podagada village under Rambha police station in the district. On the day of the incident, a herd of five elephants came to the paddy harvesting yard in search of eating the paddy stocks.

When the wild jumbos entered to the yard, the three were taking rest in their hut near the harvesting yard. During their entry to the yard, the pachyderms crushed the three. Two of them escaped with a little injury, while the elderly man Pradhan trapped into the trouble. A tusker crushed Pradhan’s leg while passing the hut.

They were rushed to the MKCG Medical College Hospital here and admitted in the new surgery ward of the hospital. “The condition is critical, but the patient is out of danger. Operation is needed to set his crushed leg,” said orthopedic surgeon Dr Bijay Sarangi of the hospital.

Meanwhile, the villagers of Podagada, Raghunathpur and nearby areas were all prepared to block the National Highway demanding compensation to the families of the injured, necessary treatment and driving away the wild animals from the human habitat. Local MLA Adikanda Sethy rushed to the village and assured that they would take appropriate steps to write the district administration to declare compensation for the injured persons’ family. Brahmapur DFO SS Mishra visited the injured persons in the hospital and assured that the injured persons would get free treatment.

It may be noted that the wild elephants are on the rampage in the Palur area during last two months. Hundreds of acres standing crops were damaged due to the increasing jumbo movement in these areas of the Ganjam block.  


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