People are in panic over the persistent elephant menace in the area as their houses and crops are being often damaged by the pachyderms, said reports.
The locals alleged that the forest department has so far failed to drive out the animals in the region.
However, the ranger of the Champua range Bharat Ghadei said as many as 40 staff have been engaged to keep tabs on the movement of the pachyderms and drive them out.
"Besides, the forest department is using crackers and lights to drive away the animals," said Ghadei.
According to reports, a herd of 18 pachyderms entered the Padmapur and Barghat areas in Banki range and destroyed around 10 houses in the village under Ulunda block. Adding to the woes of the farmers, paddy crops grown on three acres have also been destroyed after the jumbos raided the fields, sources said.
The villagers alleged that the herd entered the villages from Rairakhol and were grazing in the fields during the early hours of the day.
“Of my four acres land, three acres have been destroyed by the elephants. Due to insufficient rains in our area this year, we are already tensed. We have informed the forest department and they assured us to provide necessary compensation,’’ said Bibek Kumar Panda, a farmer.
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While the forest officials are initiating measures to drive out the elephants back to the forests, Sonepur DFO Debarchana Behera said compensation will, however, be provided to the farmers.
“The 18 elephants, four of which are babies, have sneaked into the villages from Rairakhol area. The farmers are advised to inform us through an application whatever loss they have incurred within a week. We will assess and provide crop loss compensation within 15 days,” Debarchana said.
As per reports, the heard has been moving in Burujhuli, Badakuturi, Sanakuturi, Jemadeipur, Wailpadu, Adangi, Lalusahi and Landasahi villages in the range owing to which the villagers are living in a constant state of fear.
The forest department is taking all possible steps to control the situation, said Prakash Chandra Bisoyi, forest range officer (FRO), Narayanpur. "We are trying our best to ensure safety of the villagers and the pachyderms too, said Bisoyi.
"The pachyderms have destructed our tomato and other crops. We have been spending sleepless nights," said one villager.
The forest officials are initiating every possible measure to drive out the elephants back to the forest at the earliest, the FRO added.
The massive exercise of counting the number of elephants scheduled between May 9 and 12 will cover Eastern region states, comprising Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and West Bengal. Senior forest officials from all states of the eastern zone participated in the two-day workshop.
The workshop focused on adopting both direct and indirect sighting of elephants across different states in the eastern region. The census will help determine accurate distribution of elephants. With this, the growth rate or the decline rate of the population for the next 20 years can be studied. It will also help in understanding the demography of elephants in the wild.
Whether elephant habitats undergo changes due to human intervention, the male-female ratio and other related information will be obtained through the census. All the forest officials were sensitized on elephant census through books.
“The population estimation of elephants is done using a common approach. A significant feature of the census is that it will adopt both direct and indirect sighting of elephants. The wildlife managers have come up with this new dung decay technique. Both the direct and indirect techniques will be followed and then the final result will be given based on both techniques,” said Sio Saran Srivastav, Principal Chief Conserver of Forests, Odisha.
In the last census conducted in 2015, the population of elephants in Odisha stood at 1954. This included adult males, females, calves and sub-adult animals.
However, according to a senior official of the forest department, several elephants suffered unnatural deaths owing to poaching, poisoning, train and road accidents as well as electrocution.
According to official figures, most of the deaths occurred during 2015-16 and 2012-13 with 81 elephants killed during that time.
Arukh told the state assembly while replying to a question by Biju Janata Dal MLA Amar Prasad Satapathy that the state government was taking several steps to protect the jumbos and stone walls, trenches and solar powered wire fencing were put up in sensitive areas to prevent elephants from entering human habitats.
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"We are taking a number of steps to confine elephants in forests. New forests having plant species relished by elephants are being created. Besides, fresh water-bodies are being created and those existing are being renovated," Arukh said.
Apart from putting up solar fencing to ward off elephants, anti-depredation squads and elephant trackers were engaged to monitor movement of elephants and prevent them from entering human habitats, said the minister.
The forest and the energy departments were coordinating to raise the height of electric poles to prevent sagging of wires.
The minister said the elephants enter human habitats in search of food due to forest fire, urbanisation, industrialisation, increasing population and land encroachment.
According to him, the state government was developing 14 identified elephant corridors.
There were three elephant reserves namely Mayurbhanj, Mahanadi and Sambalpur while 14 elephant corridors in the state spreading over 870 sq km. Besides, nine fragmented corridors are also formed, said sources.
Arukh further informed that out of the total eight elephants at Nandankanan zoo, four have died after they contracted the deadly herpes virus.
“Rest of the four elephants have been isolated and efforts are being made to prevent further outbreak,” said Arukh.
Earlier on Friday night, female elephant ‘Gauri’ succumbed to EEHV (Elephant Endotheliotrophic Herpes Virus) attack while undergoing intensive treatment at Nandankanan Zoological Park. Gauri was brought to Nandankanan Zoo from Athagarh Forest range in 2012.
“At present there are four elephants including three adult ones at Nandankanan. When elephant Gauri was ill, her trunk wash samples along with other elephants were sent for tests to Assam. But we have not got any confirmation that other elephants had also contracted the herpes virus,” said Jayant Das, deputy director of Nandankanan Zoo.