Chhattisgarh: Officials unable to warn family deep inside forest, elephant herd tramples 2 children to death in hut

On Saturday night, Forest officials had informed residents of Maheshpur village about the movement of the elephant herd. Unfortunately, the Pando tribe, who lived deep in the forest, could not be alerted, officials said.

Later, other huts in the area were evacuated as a precautionary measure, said Surajpur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Pankaj Kamal.

An official said the area has been a traditional route for elephant herds, and their movement was being tracked for days. The herd was moving only inside the forest and continued to move away from villages, the official added.

Regarding measures to prevent such deaths in the future, a Forest official said, “We are coordinating with other government departments to ensure the PM Awas Yojna housing scheme is implemented to build concrete houses which elephants can’t harm. Another measure is to identify such villagers and tribals living deep in the forest and evacuate them to avert such incidents.”

The family of the deceased has received instant relief of Rs 25,000, and the remaining compensation of Rs 5.75 lakh will be disbursed after formalities, the official said.

In January this year, in the same district, a village resident was trampled to death when he tried to stop an elephant herd from feeding on sugarcane in his field.

As per figures put before Rajya Sabha this year, more than 303 people were killed in human-elephant conflicts in the past five years in Chhattisgarh.

The districts where the incidents have occurred are Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur, Mahasamund, Dhamtari, Gariaband, Balod and Balrampur – most of which are in north and central Chhattisgarh.