People in Orissas Keonjhar village have started killing wild elephants for, what they claimed, damaging their crops and habitations.
Keonjhar (Orissa), Aug 7 : People in Orissa's Keonjhar village have started killing wild elephants for, what they claimed, damaging their crops and habitations.
Villagers claimed that elephants come out of their dwindling forest habitat in search of food and fodder, and damage their crops.
"We try to keep the elephants within their limits, and for that we are creating physical barriers such as solar power fencing and trenching. But they are not very effective," said Bimal Prasanna, Divisional Forest Officer.
Villagers, however, countered the claims of government officials.
"The government is not taking any decision on where to keep these elephants. The forest is on decline, so the elephants come towards our village in search of food." said Ramesh Kumar Das, a resident of Keonjhar.
The State Government has been giving compensation to villagers for their crop loss, but villagers feel it is not a long-term solution.
"We can see forest department saying that they were do something but they were not doing anything. Thousands of farmers are suffering and many elephants have been killed," said Santosh Kumar, another local.
Elephant population in the forests of Keonjhar District has come down from 112 in 2002 to 33 in 2007, while 176 people have died since 2001 in attacks by the jumbos.
Home to 50,000 elephants a century ago, it now only has around 21,000.
Orissa has nearly 1,900 elephants roaming in its jungles, home to the largest number of elephants in India.
ANI