BHUBANESWAR: After a brief silence, suspected Maoists have struck again. A forester was shot dead in Saragada Forest Section in Mayurbhanj district late on Tuesday night and a government beat house, where forest field staff was staying, was set on fire.

Rabindra Nath Patra, 55, was asleep in the forest house when over 50 naxalites, suspected to have crossed over neighbouring Jharkhand border, attacked him, sources said. Seven ultras, including three women, were in uniform while the rest were believed to be their supporters.

"Marks of two gunshots were found on head of the victim. The ultras dragged him to a village, one km away from the forest beat house," Uttam Kumar Mohanty, Inspector in-charge of Gorumahisani police station said.

Patra was taking part in a three-day elephant census for Rairangpur Forest Division in Mayurbhanj district. Mr. Mohanty said that the police found CPI (Maoist) leaflets at the spot.

It was the first instance of a forest official succumbing to the bullets of naxalites in Mayurbhanj district.

In January last, suspected Maoists slit the throats of three forest employees and smashed their heads in Kandhar forest under Dhenkanal district. Two other employees managed to flee from the spot. Some 15-member naxalite group carried out the attack then. Meanwhile, the Orissa Non-Gazetted Forest Service Association (ONGFSA) had expressed concern over the incident. "We are like innocent creatures who have been left behind in the jungles to be butchered," ONGFSA chairman J.B. Patnaik said.

The association had been demanding arms to forest field staff over the past 10 years. The government had not been paying any heed to it, he alleged. "It is not possible to go alone into the forest. We have been impressing upon the higher-ups that forest department patrol teams should be constituted with necessary power to open fire," he said.

Mr. Patnaik said that forest beat houses should be done away with and residential arrangement should be made in urban or semi-urban areas.

Ex gratia announced

The government announced an ex gratia of Rs. 4 lakhs for the next of king of the victim and a job for one member of his family.

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