5 Rendered Homeless in Jumbo Attack

Villagers of Kuchinda block in the district are spending sleepless nights for last couple of days as a herd of wild elephants has damaged houses and properties.
5 Rendered Homeless in Jumbo Attack

Villagers of Kuchinda block in the district are spending sleepless nights for last couple of days as a herd of wild elephants has damaged houses and properties.

Rendered homeless by the marauding elephants, five families are taking shelter in their neighbours’ houses.

Sources said a herd of about 20 elephants from Badrama Wildlife Sanctuary has been roaming in Kutrachaun, Satkama, Panpali and Tungripada villages. While they are found camping in the outskirts of the villages in the morning, at the fall of evening, they enter the villages and damage paddy and vegetable crop and houses.

The herd has damaged the houses of Khatu Kisan and Umesh Kisan in Tungripada village besides devouring the paddy stocked in their houses and damaging utensils on Monday night. To prevent the herd from damaging other houses, the villagers set fire to a haystack.

Similarly on Sunday night, the herd entered Satkama and Panpali villages and damaged three houses. Moreover, the pachyderms razed banana plantation of a villager in Panpali.

The villagers said though the local administration and the Forest officials are aware of the situation, no effort has been made as yet to chase away the elephants or provide relief to the affected villagers. They said they are taking turns to stay awake at night to prevent the elephants from entering the village. Divisional Forest Officer, Bamra Wildlife Division, Lalit Mohan Patra said forest officials have been deployed to chase away the herd.

He admitted that they have received complaint from the villagers about loss sustained by them due to attack by the herd. The affected villagers will be compensated as per norms, he added.

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