A CORRESPONDENT
KHERONI: What was once an occasional sighting has now become a terrifying daily routine in the Southern Forest Range of West Karbi Anglong district. Herds of wild elephants freely roam through villages under Kheroni police station, leaving a trail of destruction in Jiribasa, Hawaipur, Belbari, Mailoo, Dhikreng, Kheroni Nepali Basti, Guhagaon, Majbasti, Lambapathar, and surrounding areas bordering Hojai district.
Every evening after dusk and in the pre-dawn hours, families live in dread. “We can’t predict where the herd will appear next,” said a farmer from the Hawaipur area whose entire ripe paddy field was flattened overnight. “One night it’s our village, the next it could be Belbari or Mailoo. We keep fire and drums ready, but nothing stops them.”
The elephants have devastated the only source of livelihood for hundreds of small and marginal farmers. Ready-to-harvest paddy, vegetable plots, and sugarcane fields have been trampled and eaten, pushing many families to the brink of starvation just weeks before the harvest season. Despite repeated appeals to the Forest Department and district administration, villagers allege that no major steps have been taken to address the crisis. Frustrated farmers are now demanding immediate government intervention.
The farmers seek urgent deployment of permanent anti-depredation teams and strengthening of corridor management, revision of the current compensation rates, which villagers say are abysmally low and do not reflect actual market value of lost crops and timely disbursement of compensation without bureaucratic delays that sometimes stretch for years.
As another night falls over Kheroni, the sound of beating drums, fire crackers, and desperate shouts echo through the villages in a grim reminder that for these farmers, the real ‘human-wildlife conflict’ is not in headlines, but in empty granaries and sleepless nights.