Assam: Karbi Anglong villagers helpless in face of elephant menace

Humans destroying the forest habitats have resulted in chaos between humans and animals. 

Destruction of forests has led the forest animals to move to villages surrounding forests for food.

Wild elephants stray into the villages in search of food which results in the destruction of crops and their cultivation.

A village in Barhampur, Karbi Anglong has one such incident where a herd of elephants have come out of forests and are taking shelter in the village creating havoc among the villagers. The herds of elephants are seen destroying crops and houses. Villagers are scared and helpless. 

On the other hand, over the years, the farmers have not been able to get any compensation from the forest department. Despite repeated requests made to the forest department to compensate for their loss, villagers now stand helpless. They are looking for ways to mitigate the problem and they have nothing much to do other than waiting for the government to help and support them. 

However, on the other hand, Nature lover Binod Dulu Bora and senior citizen Pradeep Kumar, have taken an initiative wherein they are successfully mitigating the human-elephant conflict in the Hatikhali-Ronghang village along the Nagaon-Karbi Anglong border.

Under their “Hatibondhu’ initiative, they are providing food to the flock of wild elephant herd in an area of 250 bighas of land in the field with the support and cooperation of the villagers of Hatikhali-Ronghang village in the elephant end of Karbi Hills. 

Not only night, but the wild elephants are moving around majestically in the daytime, without creating any ruckus around the village.