CUTTACK: A 35-year-old tribal woman was allegedly trampled to death by an elephant in Cuttack 's Badapokhari village under Tangi police limits. The deceased, Meena Singh, 35, had gone to the nearby forest to collect firewood on Wednesday evening and did not return. Villagers and her family members found her body near the forest on Thursday morning.Angry over the elephant menace, villagers staged an agitation and blocked the Tangi-Kapilas road by burning tyres for over three hours. It affected traffic on the stretch. They claimed that Meena was trampled to death by an elephant and demanded compensation for her family. There were footprints of an elephant near her body and her injury marks clearly point to the fact that she was killed by an elephant, said Gopal Singh, a villager. A herd of elephants has been wreaking havoc on our village and nearby areas but the forest officials are doing nothing to drive them away, added Singh.The irate villagers demanded that the forest department takes concrete steps to drive away the elephant and compensation for the family of the deceased.To control the situation, police officials, officials of the district administration and forest department rushed to the spot. To pacify the agitators, an immediate compensation of Rs 50,000 was given to the bereaved family. The body has been sent for postmortem. "Only after arrival of the report, we will be able to say whether she was killed by an elephant or not," said forest official R Mishra. If the report states that the woman was trampled to death by an elephant, then her family will get a compensation of Rs 4 lakh.Forest officials claimed that steps are being taken to drive away the elephants from the area. "Our personnel are keeping an eye on the forest areas. We also drive away elephants by bursting crackers," added Mishra. On July 9, residents of Barapada village in Choudwar had staged a similar agitation after an elephant killed a calf and damaged crops.

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