Elephants raiding the farms for food have become a major problem in the Bindukhatta area. For about one week now, the local residents of the Subhashnagar areas in Bindukhatta complain that elephants have been raiding agriculture fields and destroying crops.
The locals stated that the raiding pachyderms have destroyed the crops standing the fields of more than one dozen families in the recent past. They further said that when the locals try to scare the elephants away from their fields, the pachyderms now tend to stand their ground and push the villagers back instead. On Saturday night too, the pachyderms raided the agriculture fields here and caused some damage to the crops before the villagers managed to somehow push them towards the jungles.
The residents of Subhashnagar village stated that so far the elephants have flattened the standing paddy crops of villagers Harsh Bisht, Nandan Singh Mehra, Devidatt Joshi, lokpal Singh, Kundan Singh Negi, Bhagwat Singh Bhaisoda and Har Singh Mehra.
They said that it is a small herd of five elephants which generally raided their farm lands. These pachyderms do not get scared even after the villagers make much noise and brandish fire torches in an attempt to scare the jumbos away from the fields. Villager Bhagwat Singh said he had gone with a torch to his farm to check if any animal was damaging the crops. He was shocked when he came face to face with a large pachyderm. The scare farmer beat a hasty retreat and rushed back to his home. To the farmer and his family’s terror the pachyderm followed him back to his home and reached the courtyard while the fear stricken family members remained locked indoors. Somehow, the villagers made noise and used fire torches to scare this elephant away from the home and other elephants out of the agriculture fields. They stated that residents of various villages in the area live in fear of elephants especially after the sun sets.
Meanwhile, forest department sub divisional officer GS Martoliya said they can provide assistance to the villagers only in pushing the pachyderms away from the settlements and agriculture fields in the area. He also appealed to the villagers to maintain a safe distance from the elephants.
The locals pointed out that the pachyderms have been visiting the rural areas for quite some time, which could be a reason for the elephants appearing accustomed to the humans and not fearing them.
It is worth mentioning here that factors like habitat fragmentation, blocking of corridors traditionally used for movement by generations of elephants and affected availability of fodder species have been causing the elephants to increasingly raid agriculture fields in various parts of the state bordering the forest areas. Such movements of the elephants are also influenced by cropping patterns. Observers point out that with the authorities consistently failing to take remedial measures to address this situation, the human-pachyderm conflict could worsen more in the future if immediate steps are still not taken by the authorities.