Two sisters among three killed in a single night by elephants in Odisha’s Bonai

ROURKELA: Two minor girls, both siblings, were trampled to death by an elephant in a village under Gurundia block of Sundargarh district when the pachyderm razed the poor family’s hut late on Saturday night.

In a separate elephant attack around the same time, a youth was killed in Sol village in the same forest range of the division, in yet another example of escalating man-animal conflict in the region.

The sisters were three and 12 years old and lived with their family in Mundabasti of Kantapali village under Tamra range of Bonai division. Sources said, the elephant brought down their earthen hut made of twigs and polythene sheet and trampled the two at around 11.30 pm. Their mother, another sibling and grandfather, however, had a narrow escape.