A herd of wild elephants destroyed nearly three acres of paddy fields in Norbugang Gewog in Samtse. Three families lost all their crops. The incident happened on Monday evening.
One of the affected farmers, Khemraj Ghalley, lost all the paddy on his one and a half acres of land in Diana. “I usually guard my fields but on that day, there was heavy rain and no power. Otherwise, the damage would have been less. This was my one year of hard work,” he said.
Another farmer, Rohit was growing paddy for the first time. And it was a bitter experience.
“I was going to harvest the crop soon, but I postponed after I knew that there would be rain. I would have been harvesting the paddy by today or tomorrow. The rice would have been enough for about eight months if not for the elephants,” said Rohit Uraon.
Another victim, Mani Kumar Ghalley was growing paddy on leased land since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Being a farmer, we have not heard anything about crop insurance. We come to know about it only when such incidents happen. Years of hard work have gone down the drain. Just when we were about to reap the benefits of our hard work, this happened. It is very discouraging,” he said.
The Norbugang Gewog Administration inspected the damage and submitted a report to the district agriculture office.
“The paddy that they have been trying to grow here is a local variety and not something provided by the government. Locally they call it Nunia. It tastes good and is also expensive. Such type of rice variety normally takes a little more time to mature while compared to the ones that have been provided by the government,” said Dhendup, the Gewog’s Agriculture Extension Officer.
The farmers said this is the first time that the elephants have severely damaged paddy fields in Diana. It is located near the border.
For now, the assessment report is forwarded to the Department of Agriculture. But the problem of human-wildlife conflict is far from over.
Passang Dorji, Samtse
Edited by Tandin Phuntsho
