Villagers took to the streets to protest against the incident.
Samvad Sutra, Ghato (Ramgarh). The menace of wild elephants has been going on for a month in Best Bokaro OP area of Mandu block. Hundreds of houses have been demolished so far. The condition of farmers has been made miserable by trampling their crops and demolishing their houses.
A herd of wild elephants, numbering about seven, created a ruckus late on Tuesday night in Sirmanala Tola, located near Ara No. 4 of West Bokaro OP area. During this, elephants broke the door of a house.
55 year old Parvati Devi, her husband late, was sleeping inside the house. Mahavir picked up Manjhi from the trunk and brought him out and thrashed him to death. In this sequence, 70-year-old neighbor Savitri Devi, husband of Late Lakhan Karmali, tried to run away from their house, but as soon as he came out of the house, the elephants caught hold of him and thrashed him to death.
He was picked up along with the bike, thrown on the road and crushed to death with his foot.
At the same time, Amul Mahato, who was going for duty in an outsourcing company of CCL on bike from number four, was picked up by a herd of elephants along with his bike, thrown on the road and crushed with their feet, taking his life. Meanwhile, by breaking the door of the house, Pappu Saav's leg was broken.
His wife was seriously injured, who is undergoing treatment in Ramgarh. After this the elephants killed Hriday Seth, Mithlesh, Mohd. Ghulam, Mohan Manjhi, Dawood Ansari, Ganesh Tudu, Noor Mohammad, Mohd. Asghar, Mohd. Zakir's house was damaged.
All the elephants went to the nearby drain. The herd of elephants was present there till late evening. Earlier on Tuesday evening, CCCL security personnel Amit Rajwar, who was going for duty on a bike, was attacked and killed by wild elephants.
Villagers demonstrated demanding compensation and security
Here, within eight hours, four people including two women were killed by a herd of elephants. In protest against the incident and demanding compensation and security, the villagers blocked road number four from 6 am in the morning. Due to this, the coal transportation work of CCL and other collieries came to a standstill.
The villagers did not even allow the two-wheeler to pass. Forest department and police held talks with the villagers at around one o'clock. In this conversation, the Ranger provided Rs 25 thousand in cash to the relatives of the deceased.
After the assurance of payment of the remaining amount of Rs 3.75 lakh to the dependents of each deceased after completion of the paper process, compensation amount for house and crop and other facilities including proper treatment of the injured, the jam was removed from the road at around 1 pm. Many forest workers of the forest department including West Bokaro OP in-charge Deepak Prasad were present on the spot.
Shops in Ara Sarubeda Colony remained closed due to panic
Most of the shops in Ara Sarubeda Colony were closed from 12 noon due to fear of elephants present near drain number four of the area. Even in CCL Colony, people are hiding in their homes. People from other schools including DAV also took out their children and took them home.
Sirens of forest department and police vehicles kept ringing throughout the night.
From 10 o'clock on Tuesday night, sirens of four forest department and police vehicles kept sounding on the roads throughout the night. Sirens kept ringing from Ara number four fitter breaker to Tisco siding. West Bokaro OP in-charge Deepak Kumar was also seen on the streets with his team. There was silence on the streets as soon as 8 o'clock in the night.
Elephant entered Sirmanala Tola during the day, created panic
There was an atmosphere of chaos near Ara number four turn and Sirmanala when a herd of elephants entered Sirmanala Tola even at 11 o'clock in the day. At that time the ranger along with the villager were investigating the damaged house. The jam was cleared as soon as the elephant entered. The entire hamlet became empty. People ran on the road to save their lives. The sirens of the forest department and police vehicles that reached the spot forced the elephants to retreat.
Forest department ranger Bateshwar Paswan reached the jam site at around 10 am, where an attempt was made to resolve the matter with the villagers. The Ranger said that at present Rs 25,000 will be paid to the relatives of the deceased.
Later, after the paperwork is completed, Rs 4 lakh will be paid to the relatives of the deceased. Apart from this, compensation will also be given to the family whose house has been damaged.
The ranger said that the villagers should not go towards the forest for now. Try to stay at home after evening, we will work on taking some concrete measures. At the same time, the villagers did not listen to the ranger's words and refused to remove the jam, saying that no concrete measures should be taken today regarding security, increasing the amount of compensation and giving a job to the relatives of the deceased.