Scores of villagers in Bairi forest range in Jajpur district and its nearby areas have recently constructed tiny shanties atop trees to stay there at night to ward them off herds of marauding jumbos.
“About 30 elephants have recently entered into the villages such as Solari, Siha, Kumbhei , Dhania Agarahat, Chandia, Barapada, Safa, Kadei, Solara, Maisadanda and have been damaging standing paddy crops and banana trees. The elephants also damaged the mud-walled houses of at least six persons. As a result, finding risk on life, around 120 villagers are now spending their nights on tree houses,” said Madan Mohan Dehuri of Dhania village.
“We stay on the treetops at night to save us from jumbo attack,” said Sarat Jena of Solari village. “Each evening we get atop the trees to escape from the elephants which have been destroying our crops and houses,” said Jagannath Jena of Siha village, who added that though it is painful to stay on tree tops during the chilly night of winter, yet the villagers have preferred to do it to avoid being attacked and killed by the marauding pachyderms.
At least three persons were killed in the past two years in elephant attacks in the area and more than 220 houses were damaged or destroyed. last year, elephant damaged my mud-walled house too, Jena explained further.
“Elephant menace forced us to live like monkeys on the trees. We prefer banyan, neem, chakunda and peepal trees to build manchas (platforms). It is frightful to stay in the mud walled houses at night for which we live in the manchas,” said Sabitri Jena of Siha village. After doing all the household works before sunset, we retreat to treetops to stay at night,” said Bikali Sahoo (52) of Chadia village.
“These elephants have become a real menace now. They kill our folk, hurt us and damage our crops. The Government hardly does anything to save us,” said Padan Biswal of Solari village.
On the other hand, some forest officials said an anti-depredation force had been deployed in areas prone to elephant attacks. However, villagers alleged that they had not seen the force chase the Inbriefwild elephants deep into the forest.
“The elephants whose natural habitats are being destroyed by deforestation have become a growing menace for the villagers. Around 22 elephants have recently strayed from the nearby Kapilas forest in Dhenkanal district to these areas.
Some villagers constructed temporary manchas to save their crops from the elephants as the jumbos have recently destroyed hundreds of acres of paddy and other crops,” said Bairi range forest officer Dilip Kumar Singh. He added that the Forest department had distributed around `20 lakh to the affected farmers in the locality.