Nuagaon: Residents of Sanakulagaj village under Bisra forest range in this block in Sundargarh district spent a sleepless Sunday night after an elephant wreaked havoc in the area.
While a continuous drizzle forced people to remain indoors, constant trumpeting by the jumbo triggered panic among villagers. The wild elephant also razed the house of Phiru Badaik and devoured his entire paddy stock kept to be taken to a rice mill. Phiru managed to save his life by running into the house of a neighbour. This apart, the pachyderm crushed under its feet the entire range of vegetables including brinjal, tomato and other saplings in the village.
A few days back, the same elephant had entered an Anganwadi Centre and a village school breaking their doors and consumed the rice and chhatua kept for the students.
The elephant, strayed from its herd, has been on a rampage over the last few days but the forest department doesn’t bother to take the matter seriously, alleged the villagers. This raises questions about the efficiency of the department as the personnel are equipped with adequate number of staff supplemented by village committee members and equipment, said a resident.
About eight days back, irate people Kharaitola village detained four forest department staff including Bisra ranger, for eight hours over the issue. Bishra police and top forest officials freed them after pacifying the crowd.
But the drastic measure taken by the people seems to have no impact on the department and the number of casualty is on the rise due to man-animal conflicts.
Bitterness among people and the forest personnel is growing which can snowball into a major clash unless the department drives out the pachyderms from the area on a permanent basis, sources said.
PNN
