TV journalist on board ODRAF rescue boat dies during save tusker mission; lensman and disaster crew serious

BHUBANESWAR: An Odia television channel scribe dies with his cameraman seriously admitted in hospital following capsize of a boat of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) while trying to rescue a trapped tusker at Mundali barrage over Mahanadi on Friday morning.
The eceased scribe was identified as Arindam Das. The injured cameraman is Pravat Sinha. “The scribe was received dead at the hospital,” said Bhubanananda Maharana, emergency officer, SCB medical college and hospital, Cuttack.
Of the four ODRAF personnel who were in the boat, one is still critical. The rescue personnel and new crew were trapped in high current of flowing water and the power boat’s engine had stopped working. All the trapped rescue men brought out safely in rope ladder. The water was flowing at high intensity. The rescue team had barely reached near the tusker when it slipped suddenly. All the rescued have been taken to SCB medical college and hospital, Cuttack for treatment.
The tusker has been trapped in the barrage for more than three hours with crowd swelling over the bridge (constructed over the barrage). The elephant took several attempts to swim across to the shore but failed. The forest personnel even provided loads of banana in a rope, but the elephant was not accessible.
“The jumbo is now stressed up and he is resting. It would weigh more than two tonne and it will be difficult to lift it up using rope or crane. All that we can do is to wait for the animal to negotiate the current of the water and come to the shore. The NDRF team has also arrived and they would assess the situation,” said Md Jamil, divisional forest officer (Chandaka wildlife sanctuary), who is part of the elephant rescue effort
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