Elephants give sleepless nights to villagers

Vizianagaram: A herd of elephants which came into the villages of Kurupam and Garugubilli mandals in the district are creating a lot of trouble. In the past, a herd of seven elephants had entered into this area from Odisha in September and roamed in these mandals.

Even they had trampled the paddy crops and the farmers are scared to go into their paddy fields. The herd had injured two persons in G.L.Puram Mandal and Komarada Mandals.

Unfortunately, a calf was electrocuted in Artham village of Komarada Mandal. Later, the herd was sent away to some other places by the forest officials. But recently, the group came back again and started roaming in the fully-grown sugar cane and banana orchards, thus destroying them. Now, they have become a threat to farmers who are going to their fields.

The TRANSCO staff is disconnecting the power supply to the villages where the elephants are roaming as a precautionary measures to prevent their electrocution. The villages like Thotapalli, Santhoshapuram Nandivanivalasa and Gowripuram are some of the villages that are facing continuous power cuts for the past three weeks.

As a result, the people are facing lot of difficulties. The farmers who have lands near the roaming area of the elephants are not even able to to go to water their crops. G.Murali, a farmer of Nandivani valasa said, “Last week, our banana crop was damaged by the elephants. They have crushed around 20 trees and I lost around Rs.3000. We are expecting compensation from the government.”

At present, the forest department officials have deployed their staff to this area and they are advising the locals not to disturb those animals by igniting fire crackers and making huge sounds, even using flash lights like mobile phones, cameras.

Dr.D Parinaidu, executive trustee of the Jattu Trust said “The locals are facing trouble with the elephant menace. The farmers dare not to go into their fields as they are scaring with the animals. Even our village is facing frequent power cut with this reason. We are appealing to the concerned officials to solve the problem by diverting them into the forest. “

It has become a comfortable zone for the elephants as they are eating the sugarcane and swimming in water tanks and taking rest under the trees. So, they are reluctant to leave the area.

A senior forest officer said, “We are collecting details from farmers regarding the extent of crop damage and are sending proposals government for compensation. We are trying our level best to protect them from the public, vice versa. Soon, we will send them into the forest.”