Jamshedpur, Apr 21: An herd of elephant is creating sleepless nights for villagers in Kalchiti panchayat under Ghatshila forest range in Ghatshila sub-division.
The herd of elephant comprising a tusker and nearly 30 female elephants who used to flock the forest in Basadera, Burudih, Kendadanga, Kalapathar and drink water from the waterfalls at Dharagiri and Pana are facing crisis of water and foods in the hilly terrain and according to forest sources, the elephants are now flocking to the villages to feed on the food grains grown by the villagers at night.
Similar incident happened yesterday night at Burudih and farmers had to spend the night driving away the elephant using fire torches. At the moment the herd is stationed in Basadera hills.
Farmers feel that the damage to food crops would rob of their only source of livelihood during the Covid pandemics and blame the callous forest officials who are not taking action resulting in elephants flocking to villagers at night.
Ghatshila ranger Dinesh Singh admitted of elephant menace and said that they have constituted a special elephant obstruction squad and asked the villagers to submit documents about damage to their standing crops with the forest department office in Ghatshila and they will be paid adequate compensation.
