Mail News Service
Jamshedpur, Oct 26 : Chakulia and nearby areas continue to be the horrendous setting for ‘Man-vs-Wild’ with wild pachyderms continuing to wreck havoc by destroying crop fields and houses and crushing human lives through several years while the authorities of the forest division of East Singhbhum that includes territories encompassing Chakulia, Baharagora, Dhalbhumgarh and Ghatshila look on helplessly in spite of best efforts, to contain the rampaging elephants who accounted for another life, that of 62 year old Sukra Munda of Shakhabhanga police station area in Chakulia who had ventured out to defecate only to be crushed under the feet of a wild elephant.
According to figures available, the wild elephant count has been increasing rapidly over the past five years. Locals stated that a group of more than 50 pachyderms has been unabatedly terrorizing the people of Chakulia, Ghatshila, Dhalbhumgarh, Baharagora and other forest fringe areas of East Singhbhum forest division.
Apart from the loss of crops and residential structures, there has been an incessant loss of human lives accounted for by these wild elephant herds especially in rural areas. Sources said that in these five years, the wild elephants have accounted for 19 lives and several injuries apart from loss of paddy, bamboo and vegetable crops mounting to lakhs of rupees.
In spite of its best efforts, the forest department resembles hapless bystanders as the elephant herds continue in their rampaging ways. MLA Samir Mohanty has drawn the state government’s attention in the Assembly on several occasions and attempts are continuing to be made by the forest department authorities to drive the elephants away from human habitat but such attempts seem to have come to almost naught as no visible panacea has been found.
