Ganesh Karmakar, a tea worker of Kharikatia tea estate under Mariani forest range of Jorhat district was trampled to death by a wild elephant in the wee hours, today.
The death of the tea workers led to blockade of the historic Dhodor Ali for over three hours from 10 am to 1.30 pm by several organisations including the Assam Tea Tribes Students ‘Association (ATTSA) as well as the Mariani MLA, Rupjyoti Kurmi
The ATTSA’s Jorhat district unit vice-president Deepak Tanti said that the blockade was lifted after the Assistant Conservator of Forest, Jorhat, SDC Titabar Mitali Lahon, Magistrate N Changmai and other government officials arrived at the spot and assured them that a compensation of Rs 4 lakh would be paid to the family of Karmakar.
“ATTSA further demanded that Karmakar’s son should be given a temporary job in the forest department effective from Monday which the forest department promised, ” he further said.
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Tanti said that ATTSA had also demanded compensation for all the farmers who had lost their crops to elephant depreciation in the last ten years, which the forest department had also acceded to.
A senior forest department official said that a herd of about 50 elephants inhabiting the Gibbon Wildlife sanctuary often created havoc in adjoining human habitat and destroyed crop and dwellings.
Several elephants had also been hit by trains and killed on the railway track which cuts through the sanctuary or electrocuted by high tension wires passing overhead in the last few years.
Karmakar had been accompanied by a friend who had managed to return unharmed.