Jamshedpur: As many as 10 mahouts who had come from Bengal to drive away a herd of elephants wreaking havoc at Seraikela left in fear on Monday after witnessing an altercation between an angry villager and a forest guard accompanying the team over compensation for damages suffered.

According to Seraikela range officer Suresh Prasad, a villager caught hold of a guard at 9am at Pinderbera village under Kandra police station area 40km from here, and beat him up with a stick when he told him that compensation for his damaged home would take about a month to reach.

"The villager, Arjun Hansda, then started assaulting the guard, Sonaram Hembram. The incident did not go down well with the team. The mahouts then decided to return to Bankura from where they had come on Sunday," Prasad said adding that they were trying to get a new team from Bengal, but clarified that nothing would work unless local villagers cooperated.

A herd of 18 elephants, including four calves, strayed into the forests of Seraikela from neighbouring Keonjhar district of Odisha sometime last November. Since then, the migratory elephants have killed a man and destroyed over 120 houses and large tracts of farmland.

The team of mahouts was supposed to do a recce of possible routes the herd could take to return to Keonjhar till Tuesday. After that, the mahouts were meant to try and drive the herd towards Odisha.

But a senior forest official said villagers needed to understand that it took about a month for the entire amount of compensation to reach them.

"In the event of death, the forest department pays one-fourth of the Rs 4 lakh compensation to the victim's family immediately. But in the event of damaged houses, it takes over a month for the payment to reach the victim because of a series of verifications and snactions," he said, admitting, however, that the villagers were anxious as 120 houses had been damaged by the elephants.

Seraikela divisional forest officer A. Ekka said as per forest department rules, Rs 10,000 was paid as compensation for a partially damaged house, Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000 for a house that suffered considerable damage and Rs 1.4 lakh for a completely damaged house.