ELEPHANT TRAMPLES WOMAN TO DEATH, HUSBAND SERIOUSLY HURT

FOREST DEPT GAVE THE FAMILY CASH ASSISTANCE OF RS 30,000 IN THE FIRST INSTALMENT

LATEHAR: A woman was trampled to death by an elephant, at Ratanpur village under the Panki police station area in Jharkhand’s Palamu district on Wednesday night.

The incident occurred around 10 pm when Fula Devi (45) was preparing to go to sleep.Her husband, Basudev Mochi (50), was later admitted at Sadar Hospital Daltonganj for treatment.

Basudev said that the elephants suddenly attacked their home when they were going to sleep. “They crushed my wife to death. They also caught me but I somehow managed to escape. My son also sustained injuries in the attack,” he said.

A herd of wild elephant has been rampaging in the same area and has caused damage many houses, besides killing domestic cattle, over past ten days.

Daltonganj divisional forest officer (DFO) Rahul Kumar said, “This is an unfortunate incident. We are trying our best to contain this herd of eight elephants inside forests. Still they are raiding new villages every night. This herd has entered Palamu from Chatra side one week ago.”

The DFO said that they were also making villagers aware about safety measures during such attacks.

Soon after the incident, a team from forest department met the family members and on Thursday gave them a cash assistance of Rs 30,000 in the first instalment.

“The rest amount of Rs 3.70 lakh will be paid once the formalities are completed,” the DFO pointed out. As per the government norms, the family of someone killed in an elephant attack is entitled to get a compensation of Rs 4 lakh and those injured get Rs 1 lakh financial assistance for treatment.