Seraikela, Aug 6: A herd of wild elephants created a ruckus on Friday morning at Raipur village under Kandra police station. As the tuskers went berserk, 55-year-old Kalicharan Mardi, a local resident, was slammed to death.Â
Apart from the deceased, three children who went to the forest to bring leaves for the goats, somehow managed to escape from the spot. Along with the grandchildren, Mardi had gone to the forest near Sherghati of Raipur hill to bring leaves for the goats.
In the meantime, they encountered a herd of wild elephants. Mardi tried to run away all the three children from the spot but in vain. The children somehow managed to save their lives by running away from there. The victim was surrounded by a herd of elephants and slammed to death on the spot itself. The children reached the house in disarray and informed the relatives. By then the news spread like wildfire in the entire area. A large number of villagers gathered around the hill. The villagers informed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha District Vice President Ram Hansda, after which information was given to the forest department as well as the in-charge of Kandra police station, Rajan Kumar.
After getting the information, the local police and top officials of the forest department reached the spot. The elephant evade squad was also called immediately. Traffic on the Kandra-Chandil road was disrupted for about four hours due to the terror of elephants and the crowd. Assistant Conservator of Forest Officer Pramod Kumar reached the spot. He said that the area was completely covered with wild bushes, due to which the forest personnel were not able to reach inside the forest.
Later a JCB machine was brought in to make way and the elephants were driven back. After this the body of the deceased was removed. With the help of villagers, he was recovered from the spot at around 10 o’clock and sent to Seraikela for post-mortem. The local police also dispersed the crowd and made traffic normal.
The number of elephants in the herd was said to be around seven. After the dead body was found, the local villagers demanded compensation from the forest department, on which the Assistant Conservator of Forests assured to give an amount of four lakh rupees to the family members as soon as possible.