A 60-year-old person, Joseph Toppo, of Garda village in Nuagaon block of Sundargarh District was trampled to death by a tusker on Friday. While Toppo was returning home after finishing his routine work in a nearby field, a herd of about 10 to 12 elephants rushed towards him and one among them crushed him to death. The herd also damaged his house and devoured food grains.
Bisra Forest Ranger SC Sahani said that adequate steps are being taken to provide ex-gratia to next of the dependant of the deceased. Notably, this is the second incident of jumbo death in the block within one and half months. On the other hand, wide discontentment is growing among the villagers as the Forest Department and the district administration are not taking steps for a permanent solution to the jumbo menace. It may be mentioned that a herd of 10 elephants were driven out to Jharkhand from the outskirts of Rourkela.