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Tusker kills couple

BHUBANESWAR: An elephant trampled a couple to death in a forest fringe village in Angul district creating terror in surrounding areas on Tuesday.

According to reports, a tusker from nearby protected reserved forest of Burti entered Pokunda village in the wee hours and started damaging houses. But the elephant was immediately chased away. After some time when a woman identified as Lata Sitha saw the elephant from very close distance, she shrieked.

The elephant, which was consuming jackfruit, turned towards her and trampled the woman. Hearing the scream, Madhab Sitha, husband of the woman, rushed to the place and tried to divert attention of the elephant. But he also faced the same fate. Madhab succumbed to injuries on way to hospital.

However, the tension did not subside till the evening as the marauding elephant resurfaced in the afternoon and wandering just outside the village boundary. Forest officials and activists rushed to spot to calm down villagers.

“Villagers were so enraged over the death of the couple that they could have killed the elephant had the forest officials have not intervened,” honorary wildlife warden of Angul Prasant Behera said.

In Keonjhar district, villagers were too angry over frequent intrusion by an elephant in Joda area. Recently villagers tried to set the elephant on fire. According to sources, the Forest Department is contemplating to send two trained elephants to the mineral hotbed of Joda to either chase the big mammals into deep jungle or to keep it away from human habitation.

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