Man Killed In Elephant Attack In Odisha’s Balangir: DFO Says Deceased Not A Forest Employee

Balangir: One person was killed and two others sustained critical injuries after being attacked by a wild elephant in Kantabanji area of Odisha’s Balangir district.

Sources said the incident took place near Bandhanpali village under Dholamunda section of Kantabanji forest range. The deceased was identified as Rupesh Chhatria.

While a forester had initially claimed that the deceased was an elephant tracker – ‘Gaja Sathi’, Balangir DFO Sudarshan Behera later clarified that Rupesh was not an employee of the forest department. “He (Rupesh) was not a Gaja Sathi. I do not know why he (forester) described the deceased as a Gaja Sathi. A probe will be conducted to ascertain as to why he said so,” he said.

The deceased was a member of the general public and not a Gaja Sathi of the forest department, the DFO added

As per information, a team was monitoring the movement of the elephant when the animal suddenly attacked them on Sunday night, Three individual were critically injured in the attack.

They were rushed to Bhima Bhoi Medical College and Hospital in Balangir where Rupesh succumbed to his injuries during treatment on Sunday night.

The elephant had reportedly strayed close to human settlements and forest department teams were monitoring its movement.

Balangir DFO Sudarshan Behera said that the forest department had been tracking the elephant’s movement for the past 15 to 20 days and had sent the teams to keep a watch.