DIBRUGARH, Jan 7 — A herd of elephants, numbering between 30 and 35, have been terrorizing the people in a dozen villages in the south-western fringes of the city. This annual depredation by the pachyderm pack has till now gone unchecked, even as the forest department officials are at their wit’s end as to how to tackle the situation. The villages that have been hit hard by elephants knocking at human dwellings include Kathalbam, Metakani, Sessa Nagaon, Bordoibam and Majgaon in the Medela Dehingmukh area, Dighalia and Moinammirigaon in the Kolakhowa area and Paroliguri, Baregharia and Gorudhoria Patragaon in the Madhupur Bogibeel area. At Sessa Nagaon, ten families were rendered homeless last year following depredation by wild elephants.
Locals of the area say that the menace became unbearable since the winter of 1999. That year, five persons were trampled to death by the tuskers. Each of the families of the bereaved received Rs 5000 each as compensation. Whereas, the forest department should have taken up the cause and arranged for a proper compensation. Central forest norms have it that victims of elephant depredation, in the case of deaths, would receive Rs 1 lakh each from the Union Ministry of Environment & Forests. Obviously, there is none in the Assam forest department to take up cases of poor farmers. Native Assamese farming families predominantly inhabit the entire cluster of villages mentioned above. The population of the area is a little above 45000. Just last week, five households in Metakani watched in horror as a heard of elephants gorged into the paddy which was earlier harvested and stored in the domestic warehouses (bharal). These families are now left with no food grains, and they don’t even know whom to go to, to keep hunger at bay.
Local foresters have absolved themselves of any responsibility from the pachyderm menace by providing some kerosene and some firecrackers to the villagers. The kerosene is meant to light torches to frighten away elephants at night, while fire crackers, if these make enough of a noise, do help to chase away the animal. A forest department official here said he admits that kerosene supply is erratic. “But please remember that we buy this oil from our personal resources out of sympathy for the villagers... how long can we continue with this kind of charity?” he says. He added that the beneficiaries misuse much of the kerosene.
Meanwhile, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service, a government agency, plans to invest in an electrified fence in the Medela forest area, to keep the elephants away from human dwellings. Though many are doubtful of the success of such structures, work on the project is yet to begin. As for the elephants, the area comes under a documented elephant corridor. It’s no fault on the animals’ part that the vast Medela reserve has been ruthlessly exploited by the timber mafia to its present state of a few stumps and some patches of softwood trees. What the forest earlier provided by way of fodder and shelter to herds of elephants is now being forced on poor farming villagers.