Elephants ravage paddy crops in Odisha villages; farmers seek permanent solution

Forest officials are monitoring the herds, and Energy department officials have been alerted to disconnect power supply to prevent accidents during the elephant movement.

The elephant herd in a paddy field near Dalki village (Photo | Express)

BARIPADA: Farmers of Betnoti and Rasgovindpur under Baripada forest division are a distressed lot as a herd of 55 elephants has damaged vast paddy crops.

The elephants crossed the Odisha-West Bengal and Odisha-Jharkhand borders, destroying crops during their two-day stay. After moving to Nilagiri range in Balasore, they returned to Betnoti, continuing to damage crops at night while returning to forests during the day.

Latika Murmur, Sibani Murmu and Baidhar Singh from Betnoti shared their plight, stating that communities across Betnoti and Rasgovindpur ranges have been severely impacted by the elephant depredation.

Villagers from Nadpur and Dalki are spending sleepless nights as the elephants entered human settlements in search of food. Despite assurances of compensation, farmers claim it falls short of their investment.

“We frequently requested the Forest department to take permanent measures to prevent entry of the elephants to the croplands and human settlements but no needful step is taken yet for which the farmers suffer huge losses,” they rued.

Some farmers said they will not be able to harvest a quintal of paddy due to damage to standing crops.

Range officer Monwar Khan confirmed another herd of 41 elephants entered Betnoti after crossing Rasgovindpur.

Forest officials and Gaja Sathi teams are monitoring the herds, and Energy department officials have been alerted to disconnect power supply to prevent accidents during the elephant movement.