Keonjhar: In a fresh incident of jumbo attack in Odisha, an elderly farmer was trampled to death by an elephant while guarding his paddy crops at a village under Bashanpal block of Keonjhar district.
As per preliminary information, the incident took place at Kusakala village located under Keonjhar forest range in the wee hours. The deceased farmer has been identified as Maheswar Mahanta.
Tension prevailed in the area following the fresh jumbo attack. People in the area are already in a state of panic as a herd of 3around 2 elephants is still roaming near the village.
The wild elephants are roaming in Kushkala, Adal, Kalanda and nearby areas destroying houses and paddy crop. In order to save the paddy crop from the pachyderms, villagers are guarding their fields at night and beating drums and vessels to drive the animals away.
Several farmers guard their agricultural fields by setting up temporary structures on trees as there has been a rise in incidents of elephants destroying the standing crops in the region.
Mahanta had reportedly climbed down the tree to drive away some jumbos that had entered his field when he was trampled to death by an elephant.
Angry over the incident, locals staged a road blockade on Monday alleging that police and forest officials shifted the farmer’s body to Keonjhar without informing his family.
The forest department officials, on the other hand, claimed that the farmer was shifted to the hospital as it was presumed that he was alive. However, he was declared dead by the doctors.
Efforts are being made by the senior police and forest department officials to hold discussion with the protesters and resolve the issue.
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