A tusker trampled a 23-year-old woman, identified as Sunita Dhara, and her six-day-old infant to death in Kadobahal village on Friday night. The tusker and two female elephants were moving around Pithamal forest close to the village for last two weeks, before going on a rampagein the village.
Fearing for their lives, the villagers ran helter-skelter but Sunita could not. The bodies were sent for postmortem by the officials of Jharsuguda forest range.
“We have given Rs 10,000 to the family members; the rest will be given to them after the completion of formalities,” said divisional forest officer (Jharsuguda) Arjun Behera.