![]() |
Villagers in Baksa guarding a field from wild elephants |
Dec. 6: They come, they see, they destroy.
Straying out of the forests bordering the foothills of Bhutan, a herd of wild elephants has been terrorising villages across this Bodoland Territorial Council-administered border district.
The herd has already destroyed scores of vegetable farms, banana plantations and paddy fields. Not only that, the elephants have demolished over a dozen huts in their way.
On Sunday, a member of the herd trampled a pregnant woman at Tanisia village, near the Manas National Park.
The Maharipara and Goreswar units of the All Bodo Students’ Union picketed in front of the Goreswar subdivisional office recently to draw the administration’s attention to the plight of the villagers. Student leaders accused the forest department of not taking any step to chase the wild elephants away from paddy fields.
Residents of some of the affected villages, including Khoirajhar, Suwagpur, Bar-pathar, Balabari, Makaldonga, Satpara, Harijhora, Jokmari and Narabari, participated in the demonstration.
In the last two months, three persons have died and several have been injured in attacks by elephants. In October, 58-year-old Timaya Devi from Suwagpur village, under Goreswar police station, was killed when a wild elephant attacked her.
A tusker killed one-year-old Nanu Kisku in Daragaon village, under Mushalpur police station, the next month. The victim’s father, Lakhi Kisku, and his three-year-old brother Jetha were injured. Around the same time, an elephant that had been shot at by poachers at Mainapukhri created havoc by destroying over 15 huts in Daragaon and Simulabasti villages. The animal later died of its injuries.
The man-elephant conflict is not restricted to Baksa district. Several villages in the other Bodoland districts, especially those along the Indo-Bhutan border, have experienced elephant attacks.
Conservationists blame the dwindling forest cover for the migration of wild elephants to villages in the vicinity of their habitats. Vast stretches of forestland across the state have been encroached upon. Forests in Baksa are no exception.