DERGAON, June 2 – A gang of 40 angry tea labourers of Numaligarh tea estate attacked the Numaligarh Forest Beat Office at around 1.30 am on May 29 following a devastation created by wild elephants. The agitated youths destroyed the office building and also assaulted the forest officials. One forest official Thaneswar Nath received a serious injury in the attack. According to information, a group of wild pachyderms came down from Deopahar to the TE in the evening of May 29. The forest officials tried to change the route of the elephants by making noise but the pachyderms again came to the TE and destroyed the dwelling house of Muruli Tanti of Line No. 5 of Numaligarh TE.
Following this, an irate mob of 40 youths came to the office and assaulted the officials at around 11-30 pm with dao, sticks etc. The angry labourers came to the office again at around 1.30 am and attacked the officials. Though other official could escape from this site, Thaneswar Nath could do nothing. The gang brutally beat him up and he had to be admitted to a hospital. They later destroyed the office buildings before leaving the site.
When contacted, the forest officer told this correspondent that the tea labourers took the decision to attack the officials as they have for long been terrorised by wild elephants. The forest beat officer lodged an FIR at Bokakhat PS following which the Bokakhat PS started investigation. No one has been arrested so far in this connection.
The terror created by the wild elephants is the result of the rampant deforestation in Golaghat district. Due to encroachments in Deopahar, Naambar etc, the shelter of wild elephants is shriking day by day, resulting in frequent man-elephant conflicts. In fact, the Numaligarh Refinery Limited itself was constructed in a natural shelter of wild elephants.