A wild elephant, which has become synonymous with terror in the rural areas adjacent to Chutiya PF of Ranka for the last fortnight, got separated from its companions and on Friday night at around 10 pm, it killed a woman in Machala Mahua area near Godarmana market, and injured a four year old child.
After treatment, the injured girl is in her father's lap.
A young elephant got separated from his companions last fortnight ago. The continuous process of eating and destroying the crops kept in the farm barns is going on in Chutia, Hatdohar, Leela Pathar, Bhaunri, Homia, Durjan and Machala Mahua areas adjacent to Chutia PF, where the villagers are lives in panic due to no concrete action being taken despite continuous information being given to forest department officials.
On Friday night, around ten O'clock, when an elephant reached Machala Mahua area, the cattle tied near the house started screaming in fear. Jai Prakash Sharma's twenty-five-year-old wife Mamta Devi, who was sleeping with a four-year-old girl in her house, opened the door and came out to look. The people in the neighborhood informed her that the elephant was coming and told her to run away. The deceased immediately started running out of the house with her four-year-old daughter in her lap. Meanwhile, her saree got badly stuck in a thorn and the elephant chasing her hit her with its trunk. In this sequence, the four-year-old girl remained lying in the bush in shock for a long time.
After the elephant left, the neighbors took the girl out of the bush and informed the other people about the incident. Later, the deceased's husband Jai Prakash Sharma, who works as a laborer in the Garhwa Road area, came to know about the incident. As soon as he reached home in the morning, the girl clung to his lap in a distressed state.
After killing the woman, the elephant went to the market, about one and a half kilometers away. In the afternoon, he reached the village where he damaged the kutcha house of Surajdev Lohra, ate the grains kept in it and mixed it with dust. Angered by the frequent incidents of wild elephants happening in the area, people blocked the Ranka Godarmana National Highway No. 343 for almost two hours. Meanwhile, a long queue of vehicles was formed on both sides of the road. After a lot of persuasion by the forest area officer Gopal Chandra, who arrived on the information of the incident, the department fixed Rs. 4 lakhs at the departmental level for the family of the deceased and as compensation for the treatment of the injured girl. Apart from immediate payment of Rs 1.5 lakh, people lifted the jam on the assurance of Rs 1.5 lakh as compensation to Surajdev Lohra, a resident of Hatdohar. Later, the body of the deceased was sent to Garhwa for post-mortem.
