Elephants killed 43 people in Sundargarh in 7 years

Bhubaneswar, Jul 09 (UNI) As many as 43 people have been killed in elephant attacks in Orissa's tribal dominated Sundargarh district during the last seven years.

In reply to a question of Prafulla Majhi, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said out of 61 deaths reported in elephant attacks in the district during the last seven years, 43 cases were confirmed after necessary enquiries and compassionate amounts had been paid in all these cases.

Mr Patnaik said the state government had increased the compassionate amount from Rs 10,000 to Rs one lakh in the recent past adding that there was no proposal to increase the amount to Rs.5 lakh.

He said the state government would examine the feasibility of preferential allotment of Indira Awas Yojana houses to persons whose houses were damaged in elephant attack.

At present the government provided a compensation of Rs 3500 for fully damaged houses and Rs 2500 for partially damaged ones, the chief minister said.

UNI