Wild elephants have started to become a constant menace for locals of Arden chiwog under Chhoekhorling Gewog in Pema Gatshel. Farmers have been losing most of their crops such as betel nuts and bananas to elephants.
With elephants constantly ravaging their crops, people have started to fear for their lives as well.
Recently, farmers of Arden lost several of their betel nut trees to elephants. They say they try to protect their crops from the wild animals but it is risky for them.
“They didn’t come during the maize season. But now they have damaged all our banana and betel nut trees. They destroyed the trees when I was inside the house and later I could see in the bright moonlight that my betel nut orchard had been damaged. We try everything to chase them, but it doesn’t work at all,” said Yagtong, from Arden village in Chhoekhorling Gewog.
“They damaged around twenty trees. I stopped counting as they keep on causing damage to the trees. We harvest it during the 2nd month of Bhutanese calendar and after that we sell it,” added Pema Tshomo, from the same village.
Accepting defeat that they can’t guard their crops anymore, they are now more concerned about their safety.
“At first, we were sad when they damaged the crop and tried to chase them away. But they kept on coming back every night and damaging the crops. So we were afraid they might attack us and decided to let them destroy the crops,” she added.
“Elephants used to come to our village in the past as well. But I didn’t see them cause as much damage as this year. They came once at Khalatsho in the past too, during that time the damage was not as much as today. They are causing a lot of damage this year,” Yagtong added.
Meanwhile, the village Tshogpa says many families abandoned the village because of its remoteness. Because of this, the lands have turned into forests and have become a place for wild animals to wander.
“This is our home, and we don’t even have anywhere else to go. But most of the other families are staying elsewhere now. All their lands have turned fallow and turned into forests. And we are facing a tough time with the wild animals,” shares Sangay Dorji, the Arden Tshogpa.
He added some of the landowners who don’t live in the village are planting trees in their land, which provides shelter to the wild animals. To solve the problem, he says talks are going on with the gewog administration and divisional forest offices to have fields surrounded with electric fences.
Thinley Dorji
