KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, Oct 8: A 15-member team of mahouts from the Bankura district of West Bengal reached Ghurabandha block in East Singhbhum on Saturday for driving away a herd of migratory elephants.
The herd comprised of 13 elephants has come from Midnapore in Bengal has anchored in the human habitat in Ghutan and has been in a rampaging mode for the past three days, prompting the forest department to seek for the intervention of the mahouts from Bengal.
The herd of wild elephants has been grazing and trampling the standing paddy crops there and also damaging the houses, triggering panic among the villagers.
Revealing the situation, Jamshedpur Divisional Forest Officer Mamta Priyadarshi said after the herd had entered into Ghatsila sub-division on Wednesday, the department had pressed an eight-member Quick Response Team (QRT) to drive the tuskers away.
“The QRT wanted to drive the herd towards Dalma hills, but despite making repeated attempts the elephants moved deeper into the sub-division and finally anchored at the Ghurabandha block bordering Odisha. Then only we decided to bring in a special team of mahouts from Bankura district,” said Priyadarshi while talking to lagatar24.com.
The DFO pointed out that migratory elephants prefer to stay at a place where there is an adequate amount of food and water. She said as the Ghurabandha block where the herd is anchored presently has sufficient water and standing paddy crops, the tuskers are reluctant to move somewhere else.
The senior forest officer said that the department has assured the people living in Ghurabandha block that those who suffered a loss due to trampling or grazing of paddy crops will be given compensation.
“Once the elephants’ herd is driven out of Ghurabandha, we will assess the loss in terms of damage to houses and paddy crops. And then we will pay the compensation individually,” the DFO stated.
Replying to a question, Mamta Priyadarshi said that as of now the department has paid Rs 56 lakhs as compensation towards the loss of crops and damage to residential houses in the Jamshedpur forest division in the current financial year.
