Jamshedpur: Forest Department has roped in a 15-member team of mahouts from Bankura district of Bengal that reached Chandil forest range. The team will drive away the herd of wild elephants that had been causing menace in the Chandil and Ichagarh in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district.
The mahouts from Bengal reached here after the Chandil forest officials took the initiative for carrying out the elephant driving job jointly. The local mahouts who were from Chandil were opposing the entry of mahouts from Bengal and threatened that they would disturb elephant-driving work.
“We have roped in a Bankura-based team of mahouts who are skilled in driving wild elephants effectively and have reached Chandil. The Bengal team will work jointly with a five-member local team,” said the official.
He said they had engaged three teams of local mahouts, comprising 15 mahouts in each team for driving the herd of 10 elephants which has been destroying paddy crops and also damaging houses in the Chandil and Ichagarh since the past three weeks.
” As per our experience the local teams were not efficient enough to do their job and the herd of elephants continued to destroy houses, the villagers had got wary of the local teams who later accepted our proposal to drive the elephants by carrying out the job jointly,” said the forest officer.
An additional 15-member team of mahouts from Bengal’s Bankura district reached Chandil to drive away a menacing herd of wild elephants from the Chanil forest range on Saturday evening.
The forest department had to call in another team of Mahouts from Bankura as an additional herd of 25 elephants reached near the human habitats in the Chandil forest range, making the total number of migratory elephants to anchor in the range to 48.
At present there are three herds of 48 wild elephants anchored near the human habitats in Nimdih and Ichagarh blocks under the Chandil forest range in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district.
He said apart from the two herds, yet another herd comprising six elephants has also come probably from Tamar jungle in the Chandil forest range, thus making the total number of wild elephants to arrive here to 48.
People are in a state of havoc due to such menace. Sometimes villagers migrate to safer places for a week or more to avoid the sudden night-time attacks of the wild elephant herds.
“We are forced to spend sleepless nights. Our lives are at risk due to rampaging elephants. Elephants regularly venture into villages, destroy houses, damage standing crops and even trample people to death. We are forced to work like a ‘night guard’ to save our lives and crops” said a villager.
The herd has entered into Seraikela jungle in November end and ever since it is moving around from one jungle to another besides straying into human habitats for eating paddy crops and harvested paddy every night.
