CUTTACK: Tension prevailed at Salijanga village in Athagarh in the district on Saturday after a man was trampled to death by an elephant.The deceased was identified as Shyamsundar Mohanty, a farmer of Salijanga village. Eyewitnesses said Mohanty along with other famers had gone to his agriculture field to pluck vegetables at around 4am. When the farmers were busy in plucking vegetables, suddenly a wild tusker entered the field.On seeing the pachyderm, farmers ran away but 42-year-old Shyam Sundar could not escape. The elephant dragged the farmer with his trunk and trampled him to death. Mohanty died on the spot. Locals informed forest officers who rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation.Soon after the incident, tension prevailed at the village. Angry villagers staged dharna demanding compensation for the deceased’s family. The agitators also alleged that forest department officials have been doing nothing to drive away elephants from their fields.“We were busy plucking brinjals when suddenly the elephant ran towards us. Out of fear, some of ran away from poor Shyam sundar could not escape. The elephant trampled him brutally under its feet,” said Sankar , an eye-witness. Villagers also alleged that the animal also damaged bi-cycles of the farmers kept near the farmland.“Elephant never enters our village. We did not know how and from where the elephant ventured into our field,” said a relative of Shyam Sundar. The deceased’s family and villagers have blamed forest officials negligence for the death of the farmer. They alleged that the forest officials arrived late at the spot and did not take appropriate steps to drive away the tusker.However, forest officials have refuted the allegations. “Our men reached spot on time but by then the elephant had already killed the farmer and fled from the spot,” said a forest official, R Nayak. Forest officials said the lone male elephant has got detached from its herd and venturing into villages in the Athagarh forest division. “We are trying our best to drive away the elephant back to the forest,” said the forest official.A compensation of Rs 40,000 was provided to kin of the deceased following which the agitation was called off. After arrival of the postmortem report, forest department will provide a compensation of Rs 4 lakh the bereaved family.

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