At least 12 wild elephants entered the villages of Samia, Raijhar, Paria, Salapada, Satapa, Gurudugaon Godimugura, Siha and damaged paddy saplings and houses recently. The elephants came from the nearby Dhenkanal reserve forest and its nearby areas."We estimated the amount of crops, numbers of damaged houses and submitted a report to the district Collector to provide compensation to the affected persons,” said Bairi Forest Range Officer Dilip Singh on Friday.
He said some villagers and forest officials managed to drive the elephants out on Friday by beating drums and lighting fires. The elephants often enter villages due to shortage of food in the depleting forest cover.