M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, July 4: Two elephants, one of them a tusker, last night broke open the window and ate children’s food of the Aanganwadi Kendra at village Ganeshpur in Balumath block under Latehar district. The other elephant was a Makhna, a tuskless elephant. Both the elephants were adults.
The Anganwadi Kendra personnel have written to the district social welfare officer to replenish the eatables for the children at this Kendra.
The place of the incident is outside the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR). It comes under the forest division of Latehar. Balumath block has been a favourite touring area for the elephants who come here from Chatra.
Forester in-charge Vijay Shankar Sharma said, “The two elephants ate the items of the Anganwadi Kendra. We know there are stocked rice, pulse, gram etc. We have no idea about what was there and how much was there.”
“No Anganwadi Sahiya or Sewika has approached us about the elephants’ intrusion into the Anganwadi Kendra,” said Sharma.
BalumathCircle Officer-cum-Child Development Project Officer Aftab Alam said, “The two elephants have damaged the window of our Anganbadi Ganeshpur. It’s a new concrete building. The elephants just broke open the window.”
Alam said the elephants ate around 4 or 5 kg of the rice meant for the children here. This loss of food grains will be replenished soon.
He said the window will be repaired and the Anganwadi will be made operational.
