Telkoi: A herd of elephants wreaked havoc in Banabiharipur and Dulubhpur villages under Telkoi block in Keonjhar district, Thursday night destroying acres of paddy and vegetable cultivations.
Apparently, the herd in search of food strayed into the villages. It should be mentioned that elephants often come out of the forest at night, causing chaos and damaging the crops. The increasing frequency of their forays has caused panic among locals.
The elephants first entered into Banabiharipur village and plundered a large number of sacks filled with paddy kept in a mill. Then they moved to Dulubhpur and destroyed large areas of vegetable cultivation.
On being informed, forest official rushed to the villages to drive away the pachyderms.
The forest officials have been entrusted with the responsibility of reducing man-animal conflicts by creating awareness among people to be friendly towards wild animals. But so far the efforts seem to have gone in vain.
PNN
