Guwahati, July 20: When you can’t force them, scare them away.

Naga hoodlums are allegedly letting loose herds of wild elephants to scare away Assam villagers from their land and property in the disputed area in Sivasagar district along the Assam-Nagaland border.

So much so that the Assam forest department has lodged a formal complaint with the Nagaland government to “stop the hoodlums” from disturbing the wild elephant herds at Geleki reserve forest, which straddles both sides of the border.

Amal Sharma, divisional forest officer of Sivasagar, told The Telegraph that Naga goons use countrymade guns and crude bombs to drive the elephant herds into human habitation on the Assam side of the border. It is the same area which very recently saw an early morning attack by a large group of Naga criminals, which left two persons dead and many houses razed in three Assam villages.

Sharma said the goons came up with the idea after they found it difficult to sneak into Assam to foment trouble because of stepped-up security. “Now they are using wild elephants,” he said.

Assam and Nagaland have been at loggerheads for several decades now over the vexed border issue, with both states accusing each other of encroachment. On Wednesday, the village council chairman of Anaki Basti in Nagaland’s Mokokchung district, Lunku Mara, issued a directive to Assam villagers residing in the border area to vacate the land since it belonged to them.

The commanding officer of 1st Assam Police Battalion, A. Kuddus, said the villagers in the bordering areas leave their home at nightfall and move to the safety of Geleky town for fear of not only attackers but also elephants. “Now the fear is more from wild elephants than Naga criminals,” the police officer said.

Kuddus, who is in charge of the volatile Assam-Nagaland border in Sivasagar district, said goons from Nagaland have always been trying to grab Assam land and the elephants are making their job easy. “If the elephants constantly venture into the villages, the people will have no option but to vacate the land permanently. This would make the job easier for the goons to grab the abandoned land,” he said.

Last night, too, villagers in the Nagajuri area under Geleki police station panicked after gunshots rang out and bombs exploded.

Sharma said the forest department has asked a team of senior government officials from Nagaland — who met at the Sivasagar circuit house — to take necessary steps against indiscriminate firing which disturb the elephants.

Kuddus said border patrolling has been intensified after the Geleki incident in which two villagers were killed and several houses torched. “Security has been intensified to instil confidence among the villagers living in the border areas, but here we are facing a new enemy,” he said.