Elephants are wreaking havoc in Yebum and Borbela villages in Dewathang. The rampaging elephants have destroyed villagers’ homes and crops. The villagers are now spending sleepless nights guarding their crops.
“All my maize have been destroyed by elephants,” said Norbu, one of the villagers, while another villager lament as his house was destroyed. Villager. “All I could do was watch helplessly as it tore apart my house. I managed to escape unhurt but my house is gone. That night I had to sleep in the forest,” said Kuber Singh.
Some angry villagers are complaining that the forestry officials are not helping them. “I reported to the forest officials while the elephant was still rampaging around. But they said they are in a meeting, so I went down to their office but they couldn’t come because there was no car,” complains Kuber Singh.
“They refused to come. We have informed the forest office in Dewathang as well as the one in Samdrup Jongkhar,” said Pema Yuden, another villager:
The Samdrup Jongkhar Territorial Range office justifies they cannot entertain all the complaints especially the ones received through phone calls, because many a times the callers have turned out to be pranksters.
Meanwhile, that Samdrup Jongkhar range office clarified: “For this particular case, we received complaint by morning only and we could not go immediately due to vehicle problem. So we went there in the afternoon.”
Yebum and Borbela villages are located about 9 kilometres away from Samdrup Jongkhar town.
