As natural calamities to coastal Odisha, elephant menace is to the people of Sundargarh district bordering Jharkhand.
On many occasions, inhabitants of this tribal-dominated district are not only incurring crop or property losses due to jumbo threat but are also losing lives. Although the Forest personnel drive the wayward pachyderms off to Jharkhand jungle, they make a come back in no time to create havoc. Now, a herd of elephants is creating havoc in Mundajore and Ramjodi GPs of lathikata block adjacent to Saranda jungle. Everyday after sunset, the herd enters human habitats and damages crops and properties. Since this is the harvest time, the herd has dashed the hopes of the farmers by damaging their standing crops.
Sources said elephants have consumed paddy crops on an acre land and damaged more. In the past few days, the herd has destroyed paddy of five acres of Phitelal Singh, Budhha Oram, Bijala Oram, Nepal Singh, Sridhar Singh and Bijala Ekka of Nuatoli village under Mundajore GP. The sources said that four months ago, a herd, by chance, trespassed into the area and since then it has been returning intermittently. At that time the Forest department had managed to drive the herd away but that was for the time being. Panposh Ranger PK Dhal said, “On Friday a team of 15 members were engaged to drive away the elephants.”