A Correspondent
TANGLA: The Indo-Bhutan border villages in Udalguri district fraught with human-animal conflict and bloodshed, continues to witness the brutality of wild jumbos. The wild elephants continue to create terror and trample humans creating fear and panic among the border populace.
A herd of wild jumbos trampled one Uttam Rabha to death at No. 2 Saglijhar(Notunbasti) area under Panery Police Station in Udalguri on Thursday night. The unruly herd comprising of 3-4 jumbos were creating terror in the neighbouring village following which the victim along with his friends went to chase back the herd and he fell victim in the hands of the jumbos while his friends managed to save their lives.
A herd of wild elephants had earlier trampled a 16-year-old minor Rupali Toppo, daughter of Baranbas Toppo and Jasinta Toppo at Badlapara TE under Dimakuchi Police Station in Udalguri district on October 7 night. “It is high time the State government should wake up from a deep slumber and not only deliver lip-service in the name of mitigating the man-elephant conflict but should adopt strategies,” says known wildlife activist of Udalguri, Nabajyoti Baruah.
He further advocates that the forest department should set up control rooms at its divisional offices to monitor the situation and anti-depredation squads should be set up in each division involving local youths as volunteers to deal with the problem. Baruah also exhorted the government to adopt measures similar to Bandipur National Park in Karnataka. “M.D. Madhusudhan of the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, has tried out mitigation measures on agricultural lands by the installation of co-operative electric fences. Such an experiment has been very successful in Karnataka. If this model can be replicated in Assam and scaled up it can help reduce the conflict to a great extent,” he added.