Woman killed in elephant attack

A woman was killed in a wall collapse when three-four wild elephants entered the Bastro village here and damaged several huts, sparking protest by the residents demanding action from the forest administration in keeping the pachyderms within allocated habitat.
A Forest official said the three-four pachyderms, which strayed from a herd, damaged three huts in the forested locality of Bastro village in Jhargram sub-division of West Midnapore district.
While 38-year-old Rani Hansda died as the mud wall of their hut caved in, her husband and child escaped, the official said.
Angry villagers later demonstrated before the Forest department team and stated that the wild elephants were regularly roaming in the area and damaging crops and houses but there was little action from the administration.

The forest official said the eight member herd had been roaming around Bastro, Piyalgheria, Garkhalboni and seven other hamlets under Jharkhand sub-division for past several days and efforts were on to move them back to Dalma forest range habitat.