Elephant menace: Septuagenarian among two trampled to death in Odisha

Angul: Two persons were killed in an elephant attack at Suleipal village under Rengali police limits in Angul district yesterday. While the body of one was found in a forest near the village this morning, another died while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Talcher today.

The deceased duo has been identified as Sudhakar Mohanty, a septuagenarian, and Deba Samal (56), both were farmers.

Sources said both had gone to a nearby field for farming yesterday, when an elephant came out from nowhere and attacked them. Critically-injured Deba was rescued and rushed to a hospital at Mandapal in Talcher, where he was declared dead today. On the other hand, body of 70-year-old Sudhakar was recovered from a forest near the agriculture field. Both the bodies were later sent to a hospital here for post-mortem.

Forest officials, who reached the spot to take stock of the situation, said the pachyderm might have entered into the forest from neighbouring region recently since there were no elephants in the forest before.