A herd of elephants has started reappearing into Samdrupling demkhong under Gelegphu thromde after a gap of eight months from last night. The last time they appeared was in last December.
With the reappearance of the elephants, people are on alert and in most of the cases sacrificing their sleep to defend their properties and crops. The herd has damaged properties of two households this morning. A roof of a kitchen was collapsed by the herd in search of food around 4 am today and damaged a temporary makeshift storehouse. The herd has also uprooted and damaged banana and areca nut trees belonging to the residents.
“As soon as I heard cracking sounds, I started making a loud noise to chase them. Upon chasing them they almost got into the kitchen. All my children went out of the house and I was the only one left in the house,” said Manirupa Suberi from Samdrupling.
“Our area is considered as thromde area but every time elephants keep on visiting our area and don’t let us sleep. We approached several times to the government but has not received any support till now. If they could support us in chasing the elephants, it could be of immense help,” added BB Bujal, from the same demkhong.
“Last year also the elephants damaged our crops but didn’t attack houses, but this year they have started attacking houses too. We are living in fear, that they might damage our houses altogether,” Bishnu Maya, also from the same demkhong, added.
Forest officials said they have no other solution to prevent the visit of the wild elephants in the communities because they are not allowed to shoot and kill the elephants as per the law. They only could help the community in chasing away the Elephant. Samdrupling demkhong under Gelephu thromde is just a half km away from Gelephu core town area.
