KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, April 17: Vehicular communication between Seraikela and Chandil remained disrupted for more than an hour on Monday as local residents set up a blockade on the Kandra-Chandil road to protest the elephant menace in the region.
The agitated villagers set up the blockade along Tarkuan village in the Chandil block on the Kandra-Chandil road after a wild elephant damaged a house and a compound wall of another house in Tarkuan village this morning.
The villagers are upset because the forest department officials seem not all concerned to drive away a loan tusker which has been creating havoc in the region.
The tusker in question which parted way from a herd of elephants had trampled a villager on April 8 and has now started damaging houses in the area.
“Though the forest department officials do reach the spot after getting information about any incident involving loss of human life or damage of houses caused by the loan elephant, but they are hardly taking any step to drive away the wild elephant, ” said one of the protestors.
As a result of the elephant menace, the people of Tarkuan and adjoining villages have had to pass sleepless nights for the past week.
According to the aggrieved villagers, they have to remain awake throughout the night as the tusker which remains hiding in a nearby forest patch during the day, strays into the human habitat in the night, probably in search of food.
As large number of vehicles, especially heavy vehicles pass through the Kandra-Chandil road, a huge number of vehicles had to remain stranded on either side of the blockade spot.
The blockade was lifted after officials from the Chandil forest range and Chandil police assured the protestors that necessary steps would be taken soon for driving the elephant away from the region.
