BHOPAL: Despite three villagers being trampled to death by a rampaging wild elephant duo in the forests of Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district on Monday morning, a major human disaster was averted thanks to the courageous efforts of two of the lowest-rung forest department staff.
Jagmohan Singh, a 40-year-old forest beat guard, and Ramsajeevan Patel, a 38-year-old ad hoc forest chowkidar, risked their lives to alert and evacuate nearly 700–1,000 villagers who were plucking tendu leaves in the Dhondha jungles.
Their timely intervention prevented what could have been a massive tragedy, as the two elephants were moving from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) to Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve in neighbouring Sidhi district.
“Generally, elephants travel at night when human presence is at its minimum. The route through which the two elephants travelled on Monday morning was used by another elephant from the BTR to reach Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve last year, but that was at night."
"Knowing well that there is comparatively lesser threat of wild animals during the daytime, around 700–1,000 villagers from 10–15 villages were plucking tendu leaves in the Dhondha jungles early on Monday morning,” forest beat guard Jagmohan Singh told TNIE on Tuesday.
Recounting the sequence of events, chowkidar Ramsajeevan Patel said, “Some residents from Sanausi village who had come to the Dhondha jungles informed me at around 6.30 am that two men (40-year-old Umesh Kol and 80-year-old Mohan Lal Patel) had been trampled to death while plucking tendu leaves in the jungles of Sanausi and an adjoining village."
"I immediately rang Jagmohan Sir on his phone and met him, after which we started shouting and alerting villagers plucking the tendu leaves in large numbers. It was around 7 am that we started warning the villagers to run to safer places as two elephants were moving through the same jungles,” he added.
“We carefully travelled on the motorbike, alerting the residents of 10–15 villages, including Khadda, Baras, Sanausi, Dhanaura, Hoilari and Kuraina, while tracing the pugmarks of the elephants. We finally managed to locate the two jumbos. We kept a safe distance from the animals and even alerted the last of the villagers, an elderly woman (Devaniya Baiga) plucking tendu leaves along with her little granddaughter, to flee as the elephants were approaching fast."
"But instead of heeding our repeated cautions, she preferred to go inside the bushes and continued plucking leaves. Moments later, she was trampled to death by the elephants, though her granddaughter managed to escape unhurt,” Patel recalled.
Even after preventing a larger calamity in the Dhondha jungles, Singh and Patel continued tracking the elephant pair at a safe distance until they crossed the Banas river into Sidhi district and proceeded towards Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve.
“We shot videos of the two elephants crossing the river and moving into Sidhi district and sent them to our superiors. We also alerted our counterparts and some villagers residing in the areas in Sidhi district, to prevent any mishap there,” Singh and Patel added.
Acknowledging their efforts, Chief Conservator of Forest (Shahdol Circle) Ajay Pandey told TNIE, “They are truly brave-hearts, who didn’t care for their own lives. They kept a close watch on the two wild elephants and alerted the villagers in advance. Details available with me suggest that there were around 1,000 villagers plucking tendu leaves at the peak of the tendu leaf harvesting season in the concerned jungles."
"Had Jagmohan and Ramsajeevan not alerted and forced them to leave the area, there might have been a major human disaster running into hundreds of deaths or injuries. We’re going to award certificates of excellence to the forest guard and chowkidar.”
Considered “green gold” in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, tendu leaves are among the most significant non-wood forest produce, serving as the primary source of livelihood during the sparse summer months from April to June. The leaves are commonly used to wrap tobacco to make bidis.