Wild elephants injure four, destroy crops in Chhattisgarh

By IANS

Raipur : A herd of 11 wild elephants created havoc in a village in northern Chhattisgarh, injured four villagers and destroyed paddy crops of 33 families, forest department sources said here Friday.


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“We have received information from the Loro village in Jashpur district Friday that as many as 11 wild elephants stormed into the village and brought down a brick house Wednesday midnight,” a forest official told IANS by phone Friday. The village is about 470 km north of capital Raipur.

“Four members of the family, all adults, were asleep when the elephants brought down their house. The family members sustained multiple injuries,” the official said.

Later, when the elephants left the village in the wee hours Thursday, other villagers pulled the injured persons out of the damaged house, he added.

The official said the herd of elephants destroyed a huge area of standing paddy crops belonging to 33 poor families.

Many villages in Surguja, Jashpur, Koriya and Raigarh districts in northern Chhattisgarh have been affected by man-elephant conflicts for more than a decade.

Attacks on humans by elephants have increased since 2005 and dozens of people have been killed.

Officials said encroachment by people into the elephant habitat has caused more conflicts.

The state government is now planning to fence the corridor to check elephant movements and encroachments, according to official sources.

The government has paid out over Rs. 3.5 million since 2005 in compensation to the families who have lost lives and property in elephant attacks in the affected districts.

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