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Elephant menace: villagers seek compensation

— Photo: Lingaraj Panda

Jumbo issue: Divisional Forest Officer A.K. Jena (right) having a discussion with representatives of Santuli village in Ganjam district on Thursday.

BERHAMPUR: Villagers of Satuli near Huma in Ganjam district on Thursday demonstrated in front of the office of the Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) demanding immediate compensation for the damage caused by the herd of wild elephants from Chandaka elephant sanctuary. On July 7, an elephant and its calf fell in an irrigation well near the Satuli village which were rescued by the forest department the next day. They were members of the wild herd of pachyderms that had strayed into Ganjam district from Chandaka elephant sanctuary a few months ago. The villagers alleged that the herd of pachyderms had destroyed the paddy seedlings in their fields. They also said that a few months ago, the same herd destroyed their recently-harvested paddy.

The villagers handed over a memorandum to DFO A.K. Jena and demanded the department to pay them compensation for the agricultural losses caused by the wild elephants in the next three days. They threatened to block the NH 5 and stage a dharna in front of the office of the Collector if their demand was not fulfilled.

Bipra Charan Jena of the village said 48 peasants of the village suffered due to wild elephant menace since last few months. Their harvested crop and seedlings in fields had been destroyed by the pachyderms. Simanchal Das, in whose irrigation well the elephants fell, said he incurred a loss of around Rs. 40,000 but received only Rs. 4,000 from the Red Cross. The wall of the well and its embankment was destroyed in the rescue operation for the elephant and its calf.

Mr. Jena held discussion with the villagers. He assured that the department would try to complete the official survey of losses as early as possible so that the villagers get their compensation as early as possible. The lengthy bureaucratic process for the payment of compensation is also a major stumbling block.

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