Dhenkanal: Chilli powder, cow dung and phenyl have come in handy in combating the growing menace of elephants in this district without posing any threat to their lives, a report said Monday.
This came to the fore at an awareness programme organised by the forest department at Baulpurpatna village under Odapada block and Atinda village under Gondia block in the last two days.
An elephant expert, Bipin Pradhan, from Khurda taught the villagers and the forest officials how simple things like chilli powder, phenyl and cow dung could come in handy in battling the jumbo menace.
Pradhan said chilli powder could act as an effective deterrent to prevent the pachyderms from straying into farmlands and destroying crops. He asked the farmers to wrap some chilli powder in clothes and hang the sachets around their farmland to prevent the elephants from entering their fields.
He also asked the farmers to dip old and used clothes in phenyl and hang them around their paddy fields and vegetable farms to deter the pachyderms from coming near the cultivated area.
Similarly, Pradhan asked the people to prepare cow dung cakes and hang them near their houses along with four or five chillies to ward off the elephants.
Jeetendra Kumar Das, Srikant Kumar Patra, president, Baulpurpatna village committee, forester Rabi Narayan Nayak, Upama Behera, Reeta Singh, members of elephant squad, and the villagers participated in this programme.
PNN
