Odisha: Woman, son killed in wall collapse after elephant strays inside home

A pregnant woman and her minor son were killed in a wall collapse incident after an elephant had strayed inside their house in Odisha’s Sundargarh district on Tuesday night, officials said.
The deceased woman’s three minor daughters were critically injured. The injured children were admitted to Rourkela General Hospital (RGH) where their condition remains critical.
According to officials in Sundargarh district, Sukanti, a four-month pregnant woman was asleep in her home with her son and three daughters in Balijhudi village near Barsuan forest. The elephant that had strayed from a herd knocked down the brick wall of her house killing the woman and her 8-year-old son.
Also Read: Chhattisgarh: 2 brothers trampled to death by elephant in Jashpur district
In 2023-24, Odisha recorded 153 human deaths due to man-animal conflict-related incidents surpassing the figure of 148 recorded in 2022-23.
According to statistics of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, at least 2,657 people lost their lives in the human-elephant conflict in the country in the five years between 2018-19 and 2022-23 of which 542 (20.39%) were from Odisha.
Odisha was followed by Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh where the death figure, during the period, remained 474 (18%), 389 (14%) and 313 (11.7%) respectively.