The wild herd of ten tuskers caused a state of panic in the village of Navatand in the district of Chatra in Jharkhand late last night as they marauded the settlement in a quite destructive incident, causing immense terror to the villagers. The accident, which took close to an hour, left a trail of destroyed houses, beaten walls, flattened crops, in addition to shaken citizens.
The eyewitnesses have claimed that the elephants had wandered into the village through a nearby forest at about 11 PM. People living in the town at first thought that it was a thunderstorm or heavy winds, but after a few minutes, they were well aware of the impending danger outside. Disoriented, the animals run through the village lanes, knocking down mud walls, breaking rooftops and upsetting grain storage units in search of food.
Most families fled and sought safety in fields or even turned to the trees to avoid the fast-approaching elephants. We were sleeping, and all of a sudden we heard loud bangs and shouts. Upon going out, we found the elephants just in front of our home. Kamla Devi, a resident of Navatand whose home was partially damaged, said We ran without looking back.
Some of the houses, especially mud and bamboo ones, could not absorb the pressure of the elephants and collapsed. Vegetable gardens were ruined, and food grains stored in warehouses were spoiled. During the mayhem, livestock were also reported to go missing or even injured. Fortunately, no fatalities have been registered in human lives, but some people have been injured a bit during their escape.
The constant rise in the number of such occurrences annoyed the local villagers to the point of concern. Several parties think that the diminishing forest coverage and increasing human settlement on elephant migration routes have compelled the wild fauna to encircle human habitats. This has not happened the first time. During the past two months, the elephants have come to our village three times. But it was worse last night, said a farmer.
Officials of the forest department came to the place after many hours, when the herd had gone back inside the forest. They evaluated the disaster and promised to give the villagers support and reparation. A quick relief package would be issued to the affected families, and the authorities are in the process of pushing the herd much farther away into residential areas by using conventional techniques and deterrents.
There are also efforts being started to establish an early warning system and barricades in vulnerable village borders. Environmentalists emphasise that there have to be some long-term solutions that allow people to keep the elephant territories safe, to establish ways of a buffer zone, and to teach the villagers about the safe methods of such wildlife encounters.
The accident has again brought up the controversy on man-animal conflict in the forest fringe regions of Jharkhand. As the rain is expected during the monsoon season, forest authorities expect an increase in the number of such cases in the near future as the rains push animals towards food and dry land. The government has encouraged the villagers to be on alert for any elephant movement and inform the local forest control room on time.
When Navatand starts to rebuild after the night of destruction, there is always the fear of another such happening, such that the people of the village are left in fear and confusion as to whether they can sleep safely at night or not.
