Jamshedpur: In view of the rising incidents of man-animal conflict in Chakulia forest range, the Jamshedpur forest division has taken a slew of preventive measures, including distributing torch-lights among the van suraksha samitis and increasing the number of quick response teams (QRT) deployed in that range, among others.
On Sunday, the division distributed torch-lights among 40 van samitis spread across 40 villages that are located in the foothills of the elephant corridor in Chakulia. “More flashlights will be given to the samitis in the coming days,” Chakulia forest ranger Ashok Singh said.
The division has assured the van samiti volunteers that the number of QRTs will be increased to two. QRTs, which consists of six forest guards, rush to the spot immediately after receiving information about the movement of elephants in the foothills to drive the animals back to the forest. The van samiti volunteers assist the teams in chasing them away.
“Besides these measures, a jeep for the QRTs to travel to the designated spots with the equipment required to chase away the animals will be provided to the local forest range office soon,” Kumar said. He added, “In the next couple of months, solar street lights will be installed in 100 villages in Chakulia which frequently report instances of man-elephant conflicts.”
Man-elephant conflicts in Chakulia forest range, in particular, and in other parts of the forest division, in general, are extremely common. The villages, situated in the foothills of the elephant corridor between Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary and Bengal, in Patamda, Ghatshila, Dhalbhumgarh, Baharagora and Chakulia blocks, are vulnerable to such conflicts.
In the past two-and-a-half-years, 10 villagers died as a result of these conflicts in different parts of the forest division. In most of the cases, the elephants came down on the foothills in search of water and subsequently, stray into agricultural fields, eat crops, destroy crop fields, damage houses and cause injuries to the villagers.
In the early hours of Sunday, a herd of seven wild elephants damaged the houses of one Govind Munda and one Kartik Munda in Dakshinsol village in Chakulia. They had to run out of their homes in order to save themselves. The herd was later chased back into the forest by the locals.
In another incident on Sunday, a herd of three wild jumbos entered Dinai and Bidri villages situated in the foothills of Dalma Sanctuary in Chowka forest range in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district. They ate 10 quintals of paddy crop, destroyed several acres of the crop land and demolished the boundary walls of three houses.