Surajpur. Two children died in an attack by a herd of wild elephants in Surajpur district of Chhattisgarh. A forest department official gave this information on Sunday. The official said that the incident took place on Tongtaiya hill near Maheshpur village of Ramanujnagar forest area on Saturday night. He told that the deceased Dishu (11) and his sister Kajal (5) were from Pando tribe. The Pando tribe is a particularly deprived tribal group.
According to preliminary information, a herd of 11 elephants attacked a hut built on the hill. The official said that the parents managed to escape while the children died in the elephant attack. He said that forest and police personnel reached the spot and sent the bodies for post-mortem.
The official said that an immediate relief amount of Rs 25,000 each has been given to the families of the deceased and the remaining compensation of Rs 5.75 lakh will be distributed after the formalities. He said that after the attack, four other huts located on the hill were evacuated and the residents were shifted to Premnagar. The official said that efforts are on to drive away the herd.
Human-elephant conflict has been a matter of concern for the last decade, especially in the northern part of Chhattisgarh. This threat is gradually spreading in the districts of the central region. Incidents of human-elephant conflict have been recorded in Surguja, Raigarh, Korba, Surajpur, Mahasamund, Dhamtari, Gariaband, Balod and Balrampur.