A 12-year-old boy was trampled to death by an elephant in Rodo village under Ramkanda police station of the district on Saturday night.
The deceased, Rosu Singh, son of Dhanpat Singh, was sleeping in a mud house in the village when the elephant attacked.
Agitated villagers took to streets in protest against the Forest department’s alleged failure in capturing a tusker. The elephant has wreaked havoc in Ramkanda and Ranka blocks in the past two months. Locals on Sunday staged a protest in Ranka - Ramkanda near Birajpur village with the body of the boy.
Vehicular traffic between Medninagar and Ranka Road was disrupted for two hours. The protestors alleged that forest officials were not taking adequate steps to chase away the animal from the area.
On being informed, Forest Officer (South) Abhirup Sinha reached the spot and pacified the locals.
He assured the villagers that the elephant will soon be tranquilized and a team from West Bengal will come to the village for this purpose within two days. A compensation of Rs.4 lakh will be given to the family of the deceased as soon as all the formalities are done.
Sinha said the herd was still present in the nearby forest of Rodo village and forest officials were keeping a vigil on its movement.
This was the first case of casualty reported from the forest division in the past one year, he added.