Bhubaneswar: A forester died and three others, including two officials of the Forest Department, were critically injured after the car in which they were travelling collided with a speeding pick-up van in Odisha’s Nabarangpur district on Wednesday morning.
The deceased has been identified as Gupta Prasad Mohanty, forester of Jharigaon Range in Nabarangpur. The injured are Tanuj Kumar Parichha, another forester of Jharigaon Range, his Umerkote Range counterpart Kamakhya Prasad Singhdeo and the driver of the pick-up van.
According to sources, the accident took place near Dengaguda Chhak on the Bharatmala Highway while they were on their way to attend a training programme at G Udayagiri in Kandhamal district. While Mohanty died on the spot under the impact of the collision, locals rescued the three injured persons and rushed them to the district headquarters hospital. The two injured foresters were later shifted to a hospital in Visakhapatnam as their condition deteriorated.
Police have seized the mangled vehicles and initiated an investigation to ascertain the exact cause of the collision.
