Elephant killed, carcass set on fire; 2 forest officials suspended  

Sundergarh: Rourkela Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Sanjay Swain today suspended two forest officials for dereliction of duty after a wild elephant was killed and later set on fire by locals at Sunakhandi village under Rajgangpur Forest Range in the district.

The DFO also served show-cause notice to the two officers identified as Harish Jena and Sabita Kishan. Meanwhile, police arrested a person and detained three others in connection with the incident.

Sources said a herd of elephants were wreaking havoc in the area 10 days ago. Besides destroying crops, the pachyderms had crushed two villagers to death. Angry over this, a group of locals killed the elephant and later buried it five day ago. After the news surfaced yesterday, the locals again set the carcass of the animal on fire to destroy evidence.

Search is on to nab others involved in the incident and stern action will be taken against all the culprits, the DFO said.