Save the Elephant Day: Forest officials keep MCC directives in mind
On Save the Elephant Day, Bankura, Jhargram and West Midnapore, the vulnerable elephant corridors in Bengal reserved any programme today due to the ensuing model code of conduct.
Elephant attack took one more life here, Tuesday on Tuesday raising the number of death, so far, to seven over the past two months. This time the deceased was a former sarpanch and was part of a team formed to drive away the herd.
Ranka Toppo, 48, former sarpanch of the Kacharu gram panchayat is survived by his wife and two children, a boy and a girl. The incident took place near Harpali village.
The forest department received an information that a herd consisting of over 10 elephants had moved close to the village. The herd was actually moving around. “It goes inside the jungles and then comes out in the evening,” said a villager Mahi Munda.
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The herd had left the area for couple of days and was roaming elsewhere. “However, it came back on Sunday evening,” said Munda. On the night of Monday, the herd came closer to the village.
The team engaged to drive away the elephants was immediately informed and all through the night the team was on the job. Toppo, who was earlier an employee of the forest department and now a part of the elephant drive team was taking the lead in the drive.
In the wee hours, the herd was moving towards Jharkhand border, one of the female elephants turned around and came rushing towards the team. “We panicked and started running in whichever direction possible and unfortunately, Ranka fell down,” said one of the team members.
The female elephant caught him and lifted him to full height before crashing him down. Later it trampled Ranka and left. Range Officer Kuanrmunda Sudhansu Sahani informed that, “The entire herd and especially the female was in very belligerent mood.”
He informed that the family was immediately given away the cremation amount Rs. 20,000 and after the RI investigation the family would get Rs. 5 lakhs.
Following the death irate members of the village staged a demonstration in front of the forest office with several demands of which one was completion of the solar fencing. The demonstration continued for four hours.
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