A widowed mother and her three children narrowly escaped tragedy when a herd of elephants surrounded their house from all sides and started attacking it looking for edible items yesterday night at Samdrupling demkhong under Gelegphu Thromde.
The incident took place at around 9.30 pm.
“I came to know the presence of elephants when they started pulling the bucket. I picked up my small child and woke up the others. They started striking from all sides. My children peeked from the door and said the elephants were not very close to our main door. Two of them escaped and I remained confused and somehow could escape. I went down to my neighbour and asked them why we were not helped. They said they could not come because the elephants surrounded my house from all sides. Later people from above came and chased them away,” said Baktimaya Rai, Samdrupling, Gelegphu.
Some of the people in the area said that the population of elephants and the frequency of visits have increased compared to the previous year. They said elephants visit their communities every after two to three days. He said animals no longer are scared in their chasing tactics of shouting and cracking sound. They said it is high time for concern agencies to come up with an effective measure before causing fatal injury/tragedy to human.
“There is no concrete support from dzongkhag, Thromde or from the forest-office side. There is a possibility of causing human casualties in future. Come dusk, and they start appearing in our community. We cannot chase them away due to the large population and they don’t fear us. Moreover, people shouting and chasing has no impact on them,” Ugyen Tshewang from the same demkhong added.
According to the Gelegphu Forest Range Office in charge, they stationed four forest officials in the office every night on a rotation basis to attend calls from people to assist them in chasing away the elephants from their area. He said they are doing their best to provide assistance to communities at the affected area through their physical presence and supporting them and monitoring the movements of wild elephants. He added that the government has initiated several measures to counter the problem like solar fencing, electric fencing, and advocated public awareness for harmonious co-existence to live with elephants but all these have failed for now.
He said the population of elephants has increased over the years in Gelegphu. There are around 40 elephants in and around Gelegphu Thromde and Gelegphu Gewog. He said they require a study for their movement of patterns from thick forest park areas to the urban areas. He said the elephants are from Phibsoo wildlife sanctuary. However, his main concern at present is that the elephants might make in the heart of the town and with movements of vehicles and people it could result in fatal incidences.
“Luckily these elephants did not get into the heart of the town. If they make it in the heart of the town, there will be a lot of casualties. With a lot of population and cars, they might become aggressive resulting in fatal accidents,” said Singey Wangchuk, from Forest Range Office, Gelegphu.
He said to prevent the elephants from entering the core town, the Thromde, in collaboration with relevant agencies, should dig trenches around.
Meanwhile, since June this year, more than 30 cases related to wild elephant attacks were reported at the Gelegphu Forest Range Office.
Karma Wangdi
