Tuesday, December 05, 2017

Wild elephants help Swachh Bharat cause in Bengal, force villagers to build toilets...

Summary: The department wants to complete the project in three years, which, it hopes will help elephants remain confined to forest areas. People scampering indoors have, in turn, helped reduce the number of casualties in elephant attacks in south Bengal. The number of people killed in elephant attacks in south Bengal have come down from 32 in 2016 to a mere six this year so far. The frequent deaths prompted many to build toilets in their homes,” said Rabindranath Saha, district forest officer of Midnapore division. The forest department has also installed solar lights in vulnerable areas so that people can spot the elephants from a distance and save themselves.

Elephants have achieved what the combined might of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee could not. Frequent advertisements and intensive campaigns on Swachh Bharat and its Bengal equivalent, Nirmal Bangla, could not convince many to relieve themselves behind closed doors but fear of elephant attacks has driven them away from the fields and open, especially in the districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Jhargram, forest officers told HT. People scampering indoors have, in turn, helped reduce the number of casualties in elephant attacks in south Bengal. The number of people killed in elephant attacks in south Bengal have come down from 32 in 2016 to a mere six this year so far. Read: Tackling man-animal conflict: Bengal govt plans elephant museum “Many people died in elephant attacks when they went to forests early in the morning or after sunset to respond to the call of nature. The frequent deaths prompted many to build toilets in their homes,” said Rabindranath Saha, district forest officer of Midnapore division. The forest department, too, built a few community toilets , As Reported By Hindustan Times.

According to the Newspaper,“In our area, we constructed more than 10 community toilets at strategic points. We are also building toilets in some houses. We have a number of such proposals at hand,” Saha added. Every year, herds of elephants from Dolma range of hills in Jharkhand come to Bengal and roam around in these districts destroying life, crop and property. Bengal has not implemented Swachh Bharat and has its own Nirmal Bangla (clean Brngal) equivalent.

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