The damaged structures include the boundary wall of a dairy farm in the outskirts of village Devi Nagar in Paonta Sahib. TWO male tuskers from the forest area of Uttarakhand recently entered Paonta Sahib in Himachal causing damage to the crops and structures situated on the bank of river Yamuna in Paonta Sahib.
Though the district forest department maintains that the two tuskers were forced back into their natural habitats, locals maintained that they have been observing their signs including voices and pug marks. The damaged structures include the boundary wall of a dairy farm in the outskirts of village Devi Nagar in Paonta Sahib.
Local residents maintained that they burst firecrackers, beat drums to make the elephants stay away from the human population. Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur district of Himachal shares the boundaries with two national parks including Kalesar National Park in Haryana and Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand. Simbalbara National Park is situated within district Sirmaur.
DFO (Paonta) Kunal Angrish said, “We managed to force the two elephants to enter their natural habitats. Initially, we noticed the pug marks, dung etc. They damaged some of the concrete structures including the boundary walls of two dairy farms situated amid farms. We have not received any information about their presence in the last one week. A natural corridor of the elephants crosses near the Yamuna river. Sometimes, elephants de-route and ventured in our area. One of the elephants was an adult and another was a juvenile.”
Sunny, owner of one of the dairy farms, said, “Although we were informed about the elephants in our farm in the night, we noticed the damaged boundary wall in the morning. Before local residents countered the two face to face, their trumpets were being heard for the past two weeks. The agriculture area, in which the elephants entered, is situated within the limit of Devi Nagar village near Yamuna river.”