Tusker menace near Jamshedpur: Family held hostage for three hours

Seraikela, Oct 7: A family residing in the Guradih village of Seraikela block was held hostage for three hours by the wild elephants. The villagers woke up after hearing the cries of wild elephants. Suddenly, the house of Shambhu Pahari was surrounded by a herd of elephants. Feeling helpless, the family of Shambhu remained hostage in their own house for about three hours. A large number of villagers gathered to see the whole scene. In the midst of this panic, the villagers sometimes informed the forest department and sometimes tried to remove the group of wild elephants from the village area from their level.

In this regard, MP representative cum local village head Ashwini Singhdev, who was present with the villagers, said that the said group of wild elephants in 14 numbers reached Guradih at around 4:00 am via Dasiyadih. During this, a team of wild elephants has caused damage in the fields of Saheb Soy in Dasiyadih. And reaching Guradih the elephants damaged the garden of Shambhu.

The forest department was immediately informed about the incident. Despite the information, Forest Department in-charge Forester Tridiv Kumar Mahto reached the spot after five years and took stock of the matter. The village head has said that the said group of wild elephants is still moving between Guradih and Ghoralang village.

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. Elephants regularly venture into villages, destroy houses, damage standing crops and even trample people to death. Some measures need to be adopted by the forest department and there is need to do more to protect the people.