Rampaging elephants kill two in Janakpur
   Date :26-May-2022

elephants  
 
 
 
Staff Reporter
Herd of elephants that entered around Sanjay Tiger Reserve, Sidhi have killed two people in Janakpur, on Wednesday.
According to reports, the group of elephants are active around Janakpur for the past two days. On Wednesday early morning, they started creating ruckus in the village and destroyed the crops and houses. Talking to ‘The Hitavada’, forest guard Munna Lal said, “Two elderly men were working in their field. In the meantime, they were chased and crushed to death by the group of jumbos.” He further informed that one another person got severe injury while saving his life from elephants.
Besides, another group of elephants have re-entered the Anuppur districts of Madhya Pradesh from Chhattisgarh. However, this group kept peace for a week. Elephants herds in Sidhi are creating ruckus around the villages and destroyed the houses, crops and also killed people. Forest teams have been deployed to control the situation and making announcements for locals to stay safe and alert. People are asked to keep Mahua and rice away from elephants as its smell attract them. People are also suggested to stay inside home and keep the eatables hidden inside home. They are also suggested to avoid Mahua collection in forest as it would risk their lives.
The group of elephants entered to Anuppur from Chhattisgarh state have formed temporary territory near Jaithari area where villagers have been asked to be alert. Besides, another group of 12 elephants have become active around Bandhavgarh under Umaria district. Problem of elephant rampaging continued around Umaria, Kanha, Shahdol, Anuppur villages for past three years. During month of March 2022, A group of 11 elephants formed territory around Shahdol villages. These elephants damaged the crops, houses and also killed many people in villages. They are very moody and violent elephant.
Forest team is demanding special package from centre to introduce elephant management plan. When these elephant group move towards residential village, forest team run with sugarcane, banana and other delicious food for them to divert their route. They are making all efforts to divert the elephants towards forest areas. There is also proposal of radio collaring of elephants. Forest officials have also proposed to use drone camera around villagers to keep an eye on movement of elephant’s group.
Officials said that mostly group of jumbos prefer to rest during day hours in jungle and after sunset they move towards villages. An expert committee formed to find out solution of rampaging elephants recommended radio collaring. Currently there are 65 elephants active around Umaria and Sidhi. These elephants become violent after facing any hurdles. They have killed 11 people in different areas. Besides, group of 9 elephants have formed territory around Shahdol. These elephants have entered in MP from neighbouring state Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, etc. Elephant experts from several corners of country gathered at Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) during December 2021 where they suggested forest team to include all these strategies to have control over rampaging elephants.