KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, June 14: Following the sudden arrival of over 100 wild elephants in the Chakulia forest range in the Ghatshila sub-division, the forest department has on Tuesday asked for a team of elephant drivers from Bengal.
The team of 21-members elephant drivers will be pressed into service for driving the tuskers from Chakulia in addition to a 150-members Quick Response Team (QRT) which has already been pressed into service from Monday night.
Revealing the situation at Chakulia, range officer Digvijay Singh said that such a huge number of wild elephants had never been noticed in Chakulia before.
These elephants have come over to Chakulia from the Midnapore jungle in the neighbouring West Bengal on Sunday night. As the people in Chakulia are not accustomed to coping with such a huge number of elephants, the villagers are frightened,” said Singh.
The range officer pointed out that as the wild elephants tend to intrude into the human habitat during the night, it has become a priority for the forest department to keep the herds of migratory elephants away from the villages.
He said while the QRT is doing its duty to keep the elephants away from the human habitat, the team of elephant drivers will be used to drive the tuskers back to Bengal.
The range officer said the elephant drivers from Bengal are expected to arrive here at Bankura in the Midnapore district anytime tonight.
A senior forest department officer pointed out that so many wild elephants crossed over to Chakulia because the forest in Jharkhand is greener than that in Bengal.
“Not only the forest in Chakulia is denser, but there is a large number of water bodies, something the wild elephants are most fond of. Moreover, the elephants from Bengal might have crossed over to Chakulia as the water bodies in the neighbouring state must have dried up during the summer, ” said the forest official requesting anonymity.
Significantly, ever since over 100 wild elephants crossed Chakulia 48 hours ago, the villagers are forced to spend sleepless nights along with the forest department officials.
“The elephants that have migrated are not in a single herd. We have seen these elephants divided into five herds. During the day these elephants remain anchored in the forest cover and after dusk, they tend to enter the human habitats in search of paddy stocks,” said another forest official.
