Gajmitras, brave hearts protecting villagers from pachyderm menace in Bihar, UP

Mail News Services

Patna: As dusk settles, 34-year-old, Mithun Kumar, a resident of Naurangiya in West Champaran district of Bihar gets alert. One small signal and he along with other Gajmitras is in action. Armed with torch and firecrackers am, Kumar is highly trained to drive elephants away and save the crops, lives and assets of his assets. “Lighting torch fire, bursting firecrackers and burning chilly powder are good enough for the purpose,” says Mithun.

Amid anticipation and trepidation peppered with stray movements of elephants, the forest department in collaboration with a non government organization called Nature Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS) have taken to recourse to the services of Gajmitra, a volunteers of primary response people, in the villages around Valmiki Tiger Reserve (VTR) in West Champaran district.

“Movements of elephants from Nepal side have been noticed in VTR’s division 2 recently. Yes, the Gajmitras have been engaged in the larger interest of the villagers to save their lives, property and crops from getting damaged,” said a forest officer. He added, no  heavy damages have been reported.

Providing the details, Nature Environment and Wildlife Society’s (NEWS) Project Manager Abhishek (single name only) said five Gajmitras are in action in VTR region to pre-empt the possibilities of attacks.

“While, two of them have been raised in Division one and three are stationed in Division -2 of VTR  to assist the villagers and forest officials for primary response and tackle the elephant-related issues,” said Abhishek.

Comprising of 10 to 12 men,  the Gajmitras are trained and equipped to drive away the elephants from their areas.

The villages susceptible to the tuskers attacks have been identified as Gardi Don, Naurangiya Don and Kamrchinwa which fall under Harnatand range of VTR in Division -2, in addition to Bhatuzila and Chakersan in Division -1.

The reason for stray movement of elephants in VTR is not hard to understand. As per the officials, there runs two elephant corridors that passes though the region and, thus, in pursuance of their traditional path, the elephants are sighted in VTR, says NEWS personnel.

“While the Mardi corridor which passes through Chitwan national park in Nepal connects Division -2 villages in its traditional path, the Division -1 villages are fall under Shikariwas corridor which passes through Parasa wildlife Sanctuary Nepal. Both the corridors have been traditional routes of elephants for ages. Now, the male elephants appear be exploring the new path and in the process the male ones are often seen in Jata Shankar area of division 2,” said the project manager of NEWS.

This apart, NEWS is also working in ten villages in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh’s  Bahraich and raised Gajmitras in villages located in the vicinity of Dudhwa tiger reserve that stretches mainly across the Lakhimpur Kheri and Bahraich districts.