The jumbo menace continues to cause havoc in Sundargarh district. With as many as 74 persons having been killed in elephant attacks during last six years in the district, the man-animal conflict is fierce here.
The elephant issue has been one of the major concerns of forest officials of the district where more than one thousand houses have been damaged by the straying elephants and crops in around 8,600 acres have been destroyed. Several families of the district have become victims of elephant attack by way of crop damage or house damage etc.
Besides paying compensation to the elephant victims, the forest officials have done very little to address the issue. Still compensation sanctioned by the department is yet to be paid to the victim families.
According to statistics available with the forest department of the district, elephants entering in to human inhabitation, killing human beings and damaging property has been a regular affair. Sundargarh division has been divided in to three forest divisions like Rourkela, Bonei and Sundargarh. According to information available with the forest department, as many as 40 persons have died in elephant attacks only in Sundargarh forest division since 2007-08 where as 24 persons have died in Rourkela forest division and ten persons in Bonei forest division during same period.
Similarly, as many 1,234 houses have been damaged in Sundergarh division, 269 houses razed in Rourkela division and 57 houses damaged in Bonei from 2007-08 till date. There has been crop damage in as many as 3,350 acres of land in Sundergarh division, 3,858 acres of land in Rourkela division and 1,461 acres of land in Bonei division.
More than the statistics, thousands of residents of the district have spent sleepless nights due to the threat of elephants entering into their villages, killing innocent lives, damaging crops, houses and injuring human beings. Cattles have also not been spared in elephant attacks. The only consolation the elephant victims have is the payment of the compensation they are provided by the State Government through the forest department. The department has paid more than Rs 1 crore towards compensation to the elephant victims, but still in Sundargarh forest division, Rs 54 lakh is still pending for disbursal. In Bonei forest division, around Rs 4,12,200 of the year 2013-14 is still pending for payment. In Rourkela forest division,
Rs 13, 74,100 is pending for payment against crop damage, while Rs 4 lakh for the year 2013-14 (up to November 2013) is yet to be paid to the victim’s families who were killed in elephant attacks. Against house damage by the elephants, Rs 3,14,000 is yet to be paid by the Rourkela forest division. Victims’ families are waiting to get their compensation payment in agony but more than the compensation the residents of the district are looking for a permanent solution, so that the regular threat of elephants does not occur.
“Many a time, in case of house and crop damage, the victims do not get compensation if he or she does not have a record of right of land,” said Bonei Krusak Sangha president Damburu Kisan. “Instead of paying compensation, the Government must find some permanent solution to this serious crisis,” Kisan suggested.
Elephant depredation in Sundargarh forest division is increasing day by day. The problem is more acute Balisankara, Subdega and Hemgiri block in Sundargarh forest division.
“We are trying our best to check elephant depredation since we have engaged three elephant squads and 34 elephant trackers. We have also engaged three vehicles for movement of squad at Ujalpur, Hemgiri and Sundargarh,” said Divisional Forest Officer of Sundargarh Arjun Behera.
Bonei DFO SK Banchor said, “From our experience, we have observed that the elephants mostly enter into various village areas, mainly in search of foods like paddy, sugarcane and watermelon etc. To check elephant depredation, we have done solar fencing of five km area last year. This year also, we are going to do more solar fencing.”
Considering the seriousness of the issue, Rourkela forest division has been considering to go for solar fencing at strategic locations to protect the human habitations from elephants, including urban areas. “Following repeated entry of elephants to Rourkela city, we are contemplating to put solar fencing in strategic locations, which can check the entry of the pachyderms to city areas,” said Rourkela DFO Sanjit Kumar.