Sishudangi (Sukna), Oct 6: A herd of elephants descended on the neighbouring villages of Shishudangi and Khairani bustee trampling a boy to death, razing to the ground seven houses and destroying several acres of standing crop.

Drawn to the fields of ripening paddy, the residential herd of the nearby Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary entered the village around midnight.

Chaithu Munda of Shishudangi was killed while trying to prevent the pachyderms entering the fields.

“Around 50 elephants moved into three villages last midnight. They wrecked havoc mainly in two villages and killed one boy in Sishudangi,” a senior forest official said.

“Munda and some other villagers were trying to chase away the elephants when one of the them suddenly turned around and trampled him. Munda died before we could take him to the hospital,” said Sakhi Munda, a tea garden worker who was with Munda when the incident took place.

“He had married just four days ago and he was the sole earning member of his family,” he added.

The forest department paid Munda’s family Rs 2,500 as part of the Rs 30,000 “compensation packet”. “We will pay the rest of the amount after the post mortem is done,” the official said.

In nearby Khairani bustee, the elephants went on rampage destroying seven houses and several acres of paddy.

The houses of Arjun Biswakarma and Inder Singh Rawapia were badly damaged.

“We were awakened by the loud sound of something crashing down. When we rushed out of the house, we saw that the elephants had broken a portion of the wooden verandah,” Biswakarma said.

Here, the elephants left after gorging themselves on the paddy.

“There is nothing left on my two-acre farm. The crop was ready and we were planning to harvest the crop after Dashai celebration,” said Phulkumari Pradhan of Khairani bustee.

The villagers estimated that the animals had destroyed more than 70 acre of crop.

The forest department has stepped up vigil in areas frequented by the elephants.

“It is likely that the herd may be drawn to the village again as this is the harvest season. Wildlife squads have been posted to prevent a recurrence of yesterday’s incident,” a forest official said.