Jumbo menace reveals inability of forest officials
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RANCHI: A day after a group of wild elephants destroyed some houses in Sikidri locality of Ranchi, a herd of 22 elephants on Thursday entered the Hirapur residential area in Govindpur block of Dhanbad.
Late on Wednesday, the same group of tuskers had razed a house in Tundi block of Dhanbad and destroyed another house partially. The villagers claimed that they damaged crops and property, said Satish Chandra Rai, district forest officer of Dhanbad .
Recently, yet another group of tuskers had entered the Sikidri locality of Ranchi and wreaked havoc. They polished off the grains stored in some of the houses at Melghausa village in Sikidri. The elephants had attacked at night and thus it was difficult for the villagers to escape. No casualty was reported in the village. The families who have lost their homes in the tusker attack have taken shelter in a nearby temple where the foresters and local authorities are providing them with food.
Forest officials said the group of 22 elephants has come from Dumka. "They have been in forest areas of Dhanbad for the last few days. The elephants are not menacing and have not caused much damage to people and property," said a forest officer.
The district is not armed with traineds elephant chasing groups and thus, whenever elephants come, the foresters find it difficult to chase them away. "A team of foresters were pressed into chasing the elephants. We also took the help of elephant chasers from West Bengal," said Rai. Sources said because the foresters did not have enough trained people to chase the elephants away, the elephants continued to roam about in the Hirapur area till late evening. More trouble is in the waiting as the elephants are moving to Giridih. "The elephants are on their way to Giridih and Hazaribagh. It is their natural movement," These elephants are not from West Bengal. They live in Dumka forests,"said a forest officer.
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