2 min readBhubaneswarFeb 10, 2026 10:10 PM IST
At least three women were killed and three others sustained severe injuries when a wild tusker attacked them in a reserve forest under Odisha’s Dhenkanal Sadar forest division on Tuesday.
The deceased were identified as Indu Pradhan, Tuni Behera and Kuntala Pradhan of Lochapali village. The injured were rushed to the district headquarters hospital, and they were said to be in serious condition.
According to officials, the wild elephant attacked the women when they had gone to the local forest to collect firewood. Police lodged a case of unnatural death and conducted postmortem examinations of the deceased.
Forest department staff said frequent elephant movement was noticed in the forest. “When the women had gone deep inside the forest, a tusker suddenly emerged and trampled them in a matter of minutes. Three died on the spot. The incident occurred around noon,” said a forest officer. Officials said it was the first such incident in the locality.
Family members of the deceased will be given compensation as per provisions, officials said.
Odisha has one of the highest rates of human-elephant conflict in the country. In July last year, three people were trampled to death by a tusker in a forest in the Hindol area, triggering protests in the region.
According to official figures from Odisha’s forest department, as many as 925 people were trampled to death by tuskers and 212 were permanently disabled between 2012 and 2022. The state also reported 784 jumbo deaths during the period.
Story continues below this ad
In 2024-25, as many as 153 human deaths and 94 elephant deaths were recorded in the state.
