Escalations in Human-Elephant conflicts in Chhattisgarh
Forest officials track elephants and assess crop damage to determine compensation for farmers.
Raigarh | Correspondent: Human-Elephant conflicts within Chhattisgarh are now severely escalating.
Late on Sunday night, chaos ensued on the Bandamunda section of the Howrah-Mumbai main railway line when a large herd of 24 elephants wandered onto the tracks. Resulting, train operations came to a complete standstill around 2:00 AM.
Major trains including the Dhanbad-Ernakulam Alappuzha Express, Surat-Malda Express, Dhanbad Special, and Shalimar Superfast Express remained stranded for hours, causing significant inconvenience to passengers.
Meanwhile, in Jashpur district, a herd of 32 elephants that entered from the direction of Raigarh has taken up residence in the forests of Barikjor. Farmers from eight surrounding villages, who were preparing for the paddy harvest following Vijayadashami, are deeply concerned about the safety of their ripened crops. The administration and forest department personnel are actively advising villagers against entering the forest to prevent any loss of human life.
Concurrently, separate herds of elephants continue to wreak havoc in the Dharamjaygarh and Korba regions. In the Dharamjaygarh area alone, 148 elephants comprising males, females, and calves are roaming the territory. As evening falls, these herds head toward residential areas and agricultural fields in search of food.
In the Kartala and Katghora divisions of Korba, specifically in the Pasan area, elephants have trampled the crops of dozens of farmers. In the Khodri area of Katghora, a man named Pratap Singh, who was attempting to drive away the elephants, fell and sustained injuries; he later passed away while undergoing treatment. This incident has spread panic throughout the entire region.
At present, monitoring teams have been deployed across all affected forest divisions. The forest department is keeping a close watch on the movements of the elephants while simultaneously assessing the damage and preparing cases to ensure that affected farmers receive compensation.
