Angul, Dec 7: A herd of elephants wreaks havoc in as many as seven villages near the Nalco in Angull district.
The herd reportedly damaged huge patches of standing crops in the Talmul and Gadharakhai areas under the Banarpal Block limit.
Sources said that as many as 15 elephants led by a tusker have been straying in the Gadharakhai village forest for more than a week. The elephants are barging into the nearby villages and the paddy lands at night and massively damaging the ripe paddy crops. At the same time, the tusker is eating up harvested paddy from the granaries, marching into the village in the daytime.
Forest officials along with elephant tracking teams are keeping vigil on the movements of the elephant herd. However, every mechanism of the forest officials, to chase the wild pachyderms into the forest, has so far proved futile.
Meanwhile, the fierce tusker, which has reportedly trampled several people to death, has sheltered on a hoard of stubble and straw, gathered in ones granary. It is a major concern for the locals of the Gadharakhai area since it never moves from the spot, despite blowing out of a series of firecrackers, by the forest crews.
Reacting over the elephant panic and loss of crops, Subhakant Parida, a native of the Gadharakhai village said the people of Gadharakhai and its surrounding villages have been languishing in sleepless nights. The interventions of forest officials are of no relief to the locals.
At the same time, local village forums urged the district administration to install permanent solar fences on the porous borders and the regular elephant- passages around the village, for the safeguard of men, animals, and agriculture.
