Elephant menace giving sleepless nights to Balasore farmers

Balasore: People in the forest fringe villages of Nilgiri and Oupada blocks in Balasore district are spending sleepless nights with herds of elephants straying into human habitations and damaging crops and properties becoming a daily affair.

Fear of the pachyderms has forced the villagers to build houses on top of trees to guard their fields. Even villagers are staying indoors after sunset to avoid face off with the wild animals.

"The elephants are regularly damaging standing crops and attacking villagers. We have approached the forest officials several times, but in vain," said a villager, Sukura Dehury.

Crop damage has led to serious financial problems for farmers who have taken loans.

“I am unable to repay the loans taken from bank as the elephants have damaged my crops making it difficult for me to sustain my livelihood," said another villager.

Meanwhile, Kuldiha sanctuary range officer, Laxman Pradhan said solar fencing was earlier done in a stretch of around 13 km to prevent the jumbos, but some miscreants have damaged the fencing which is allowing elephants to enter the villages.

"We had done solar fencing and alerted the villagers to guard the wires against theft, but they don't listen to us. It's difficult to spend so much money every time," said Pradhan.