In yet another such incident, a 26-year-old woman and her two-year-old son of a village in Sundargarh district were trampled to death by a herd of elephants in the wee hours on Sunday.
While police have sent the bodies for postmortem, Sundargarh Forest Division authorities have provided Rs 20,000 to the family members of the deceased for cremation. Forest officials were planning to drive the elephant herd away towards Jharkhand forest on Sunday night.
Sources said, about a week ago, a group of 22 elephants had come from Jharkhand to the Katangjharia forest area. Sundargarh forest officials had driven the elephant herd towards Jharkhand forest on September 24. But the elephants came back again to the forest area.
The herd entered into the Katangjharia village at around 4 am on Sunday. A family consisting of about 12 persons hearing elephant roars came out of the house and started running for safety. But a woman of the family, Champa Mahanandia(26), carrying her two-year-old son Pravin was crushed by the jumbos on the villager road.
The elephant herd thereafter went towards the forest.
Besides above assistance, the local Sarapanch too gave Rs4,000 from under the Harischandra Scheme to the family.
“As per the provision, a total compensation of Rs 6 lakh (Rs 3 lakh per a deceased) will be provided to the family members,” said DFO Arjun Behera, adding that forest staffs are trying to drive the jumbo herd towards Jharkhand forest by Sunday night.