Concern over rise in human deaths in Rourkela forest division of Odisha

ROURKELA: The Rourkela Forest Division has overtaken Bonai in terms of man-animal conflict casualties. The division has reported three human deaths in the last four days and nine in seven months.

In the latest such incident, a youth was killed and another injured after being attacked by elephants on Sunday in Kandarkela gram panchayat of Nuagaon block within the Birmitrapur forest range. Rourkela DFO Jaswant Sethi said the victim, Pradip Bilung along with a friend was returning to his native Baunsjor village from an orchestra programme at Hathibari when at around 2.30 am they were attacked by a few elephants.