A herd of 22 elephants have created panic in different blocks of Hazaribagh district causing traffic snarl on NH33 near Charhi in the last one week.
On Tuesday night the elephants were in the forest area of Churchu block and damaged standing crop in different villages. A villager who was sleeping in the fields in a temporary shelter was killed brutally by the jumbos in early morning. The villagers have demanded cash compensation and government service to his relatives. On the other hand the forest officials have said that the experts are now pushing the herd towards the district border to send them back to latehar forest area.
last week this herd of 22 jumbos entered in the Keredari block from adjacent latehar district of the State. The forest officials immediately called experts from the headquarters to move the herd away from their area. By that time the herd has already damaged houses and standing crops in different villages of Keredari block.
When experts came they were told to push the herd out of the block area but it seems that the forest staffs gave some wrong directives to the experts so they pushed the herd towards the Barkagaon block of the district instead of pushing them back to latehar district where their natural habitat is situated.
The herd then created havoc in Barkagaon block and after damaging agriculture fields ready with paddy crop and some small houses moved towards Churchu block through which the NH33 passes.
On November 13 the herd crossed the national highway near Charhi and on that day the in-charge minister of Jharkhand Saryu Roy himself saw the herd on NH. With other vehicles his vehicle was also stopped and he remained there for more than an hour.
On November 14 the herd once again came on NH33 and this time with other vehicles the vehicle of Ex-Deputy CM Sudesh Kumar Mahto was stopped for about two and half hours because three new born included in this herd were looked into difficulty in crossing the road divider. On 15th November the herd again came on NH33 and this time the forest staffs stopped the traffic for more than one hour so that the jumbos can cross the national highway.