Bhubaneswar: Three women were killed and three more were injured after a tusker attacked them in a forest in Dhenkanal district on Tuesday, forest officials said. The deceased were identified as Tuni Behera, 50, Kuntala Padhan, 40, and Indu Padhan, 60, all from Lochapali village.Dhenkanal divisional forest officer (DFO) Sumit Kumar Kar said preliminary findings suggest the group ventured deep into the Patapuri forest — an area with year-round elephant movement — apparently to collect firewood, increasing their vulnerability to an attack.Forest officials said the nature of injuries indicates the victims were injured while trying to flee after suddenly coming face-to-face with the tusker, rather than being trampled. Officials said the three women were alive when forest personnel brought them to hospital, but they succumbed to their injuries during treatment.“Of the three injured women, two were discharged after first aid, while another is still undergoing treatment and is stated to be stable,” Kar said.He added that the group encountered a lone tusker, while another herd was barely a few kilometres away. “There were nearly 30 elephants within a 10-km radius. Given their age and the dense, hilly terrain, the women likely struggled to escape and suffered injuries while running,” he said.Forest officials said the group entered the forest around 10 am, and the attack occurred between 12 noon and 12:30 pm.The latest fatalities come amid a sharp rise in human-elephant conflict in the state. Five persons were killed in the first 10 days of this month alone. On Monday, Panchanan Naik, 40, died in an elephant attack while collecting firewood in Sambalpur, while Shankar Routray, 35, an electrician, was trampled to death in Khurda on Friday night.Odisha recorded 154 human deaths in elephant attacks in 2023-24, the highest among the states. According to an assembly reply by forest, environment and climate change minister Ganesh Ram Singkhuntia on Dec 2 last year, a total of 809 people were killed and 2,060 were injured in elephant attacks in the state over the past five years.
