Elephants damage houses in Rairangpur

A herd of jumbos, which has strayed into human settlements in Rairangpur, has instilled fear in the residents giving them sleepless nights.

The residents of Gorumahisani and Bijatola blocks under Rairangpur wildlife division are encountering the threat since three days. The local residents and the wildlife department officials are trying to drive the animals out of their areas, but till now they have failed to contain the menace.

The elephants have damaged at least 16 houses and a school building besides devouring grains, banana trees, vegetables and pulses in Chhatramandal Kero village under Gorumahisani block. The herd damaged four houses on Saturday night and 12 houses were damaged in Kaduani and Kehjuri villages under Bijatola block. Besides they allegedly devoured stored rice for midday meal and ransacked the furniture of the Khejuri School barging into the campus.

The villagers are guarding their boundaries and burning firewood to scare the elephants to protect their life and property. The herd consists of two tuskers, nine female elephants and calves.

"Depredation squads, consisting of forest staff and protection personnel, have been engaged to drive the animals out. Traditional methods, including beating drums, bursting crackers and rotating fireballs will be used for the purpose. On Saturday, they damaged houses in Bijatola and on Sunday they reached Khejuri forest," he said.

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Assam’s jumbo problem: Man-animal conflict takes a huge toll

Guwahati, March 8 (IANS) With the deaths of over a hundred elephants in a year due to unnatural reasons like being hit by trains and electrocution, followed by death of close to another hundred human beings in conflict with elephants in a year, Assam is seemingly looking at a jumbo problem with no immediate solution in sight.

While the Assam forest department has claimed to have taken several steps, including formation of local coordination committees in districts to monitor the movement of wild elephants, and created elephant depredation squads, a solution is seemingly far from sight.

“We are concerned about the deaths of wild elephants as well as humans due to the conflict. Steps are being taken by the department to stop the menace of human-elephant conflict as well as to stop other elephant deaths in the state,” Assam Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma said.

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