Man-Animal conflicts at villages under the Teliamura sub-division in Tripura forcing people to spend a sleepless night as well as incurring huge losses. For quite a long time, wild elephants are creating menace in the villages resulting in property losses even human lives. Despite some efforts by the Forest Department of Tripura, the attacks remain unabated.
On the wee hours of Friday, wild elephants, once again, ventured into Maharanipur Kapalitila village under Krishnapur Assembly constituency in Teliamura sub-division. The rampaging Jumbo herd destroyed a large number of crops in the village under Teliamura sub-division.
Earlier, on September 30 last evening, wild elephants killed one woman of the same sub-division.
According to the affected farmers, a herd of 12-14 wild elephants went berserk and destroyed their crops.
“The herd not just damaged our crops, the elephants have ruined our livelihood options. Bleak future is waiting for us after the irreversible crop loss”, said the farmers.
The jumbo attack triggered serious resentment among the villagers who are fed up with losses owing to relentless elephant attacks.
Venting anger at the Forest department personnel, the villagers alleged, Forest department was supposed to provide lights to the farmers for installing those in fields – however, the department did not provide the lights, so far.
Moreover, the villagers alleged, wild elephants destroyed their crops on earlier occasions also – however, the Forest department did not compensate the affected farmers even though farmers applied for compensation to the forest department as well as the administration.
“We have one-point demand – compensate our losses and permanently stop the unabated elephant attacks”, villagers told the media.