Elephants from Odisha damaged four houses at Paharia Tola in Ramgarh village in Seraikela-Kharsawan district on Thursday.
Apart from damaging houses, the herd of more than 15 elephants, including three calves, also wiped out rice in good quantity. No one was injured in the incident.
According to Dalma forester Prakash Chandra, homes of Hathiram Paharia, Tulu Paharia, Santosh Paharia and Birbal Paharia were damaged by the elephants. The incident took place at Paharia Tola of Ramgarh at about 2.15 am.
Chandra added the herd, which had assembled near the Dalma sanctuary on January 30, had moved towards Ramgarh the following day. “ We are keeping an eye on the movement of elephants. The elephants are from Odisha and have been damaging human settlements in Seraikela-Kharsawan . We are on an alert,” he said.
Seraikela-Kharsawan DFO A.Ekka said the elephants from Odisha had been damaging properties in Gamharia, Sini and Kandra for some weeks now.
“Elephants are migratory elephants and can move to any places,” he added.
“The department is also looking for young men between 18 to 25 years of age group for the training purpose and preference would be on those villages which are adjacent to forest,” said a middle rung forest official in the division.People are in state of havoc due to such menace. Sometimes villagers migrate to safer places for a week or more to avoid the sudden night-time attacks of the wild elephant herds.