Immediate financial assistance of Rs 25,000 each has been released to the families of the two who died in separate elephant attacks in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh on Saturday. An additional compensation of Rs 5.75 lakh has been declared which would be released after formalities were completed.
Two died in separate wild elephant attacks on Saturday, taking the total death count to 3 for this week said forest officials. The attacks took place in the early hours in the Chhal and Kapu forest ranges of the Dharamjaigarh division.
Dharamjaigarh Divisional Forest Officer Jitendra Upadhyay intercting with the media said that panic broke out after a wild elephant entered Talgaon village in the Kapu forest range. In the chaos, Shakuntala Bai, 37, was killed by the tusker when she ran out of her house. Her minor daughter narrowly escaped, he added.
In another incident at Auranara village in the Chhal forest range Bandhan Singh Agariya, 50, a labourer, was killed by a wild elephant in the wee hours of Saturday. Upadhyay said Agariya had stepped out of his house to answer nature’s call when the attack took place.
Forest and police personnel rushed to the spot as soon as they were alerted about the incident and took control of the situation the police added.
Earlier on July 9, a 55-year-old man was stamped to death by an elephant while collecting mushrooms in a forest in Korba district. Last month, a 40-year-old herdsman and a 70-year-old woman were killed in similar attacks in the district.