india

Updated: Apr 20, 2019 11:47 IST

A wild elephant trampled five people, including a two-year-old girl, to death in two villages in Odisha on Thursday night in the highest ever human toll in a one day in the state, officials said.

In Sandha village of Angul district, a tusker killed three members of the same family while they were sleeping. Forty-year-old Kalia Saar and his two-year-old and 12-year-old daughters were killed by the tusker in the verandah of their house in Sandha village. Kalia worked in a brick kiln in the locality.

The elephant then crushed another woman in the neighbouring house while she was sleeping in front of her house. It also killed 70-year-old Bramarabar Samal, who had stepped outside his home to relieve himself, in nearby Santhapada village.

Angul divisional forest officer V Karthik said forest officials have provided Rs 40,000 as immediate assistance to the family of Kalia Saar.

In 2018-19, 92 people were killed by elephants in the eastern state.

Officials said the growing man-elephant conflict in the state has also created an all-time record of 159 face-offs this year compared to 120 in 2018. Similarly, the number of people injured has also reached a record, almost doubling from 54 last year to 101 this year.

“The elephants are now on a killing spree. The fragmentation of elephant corridors is forcing the wild animals to head towards human habitations,” said Biswajit Mohanty of Wildlife Society of Odisha, a leading wildlife non-government organisation in the state.

Mohanty said 632 people were killed in Odisha due to elephant attacks between 2011-12 and 2018-19.

Officials said the Delhi-based NGO, Wildlife Trust of India, was given Rs 2.67 crore to prepare an elephant conflict mitigation plan in 2016, but claimed it has yet to submit its final report. Several draft reports have, however, been submitted.

“In March 2016, WTI was entrusted with the task of drafting the management guidance for the conservation of wildlife for the entire state. The guidance document is a set of prescriptions to the State forest department to refer to conserve and wildlife and its habitats. The guidance document is not limited to formulation of human – elephant conflict mitigation plan. The State FD has already been provided with the state guidance plan including the guidance plan of Angul Division. WTI has also submitted comprehensive set of thematic chapters and a set of Standard Operating Procedures to address wildlife issues including that of handling conflicts,” a WTI statement said in response to the incident.