GUWAHATI: As a last resort to prevent a possible human-elephant clash, the Goalpara district administration in lower Assam promulgated section 144 of the CrPC to keep villagers in Lakhipur circle areas confined to their homes after a wild tusker elephant, having killed two persons in Meghalaya, entered Assam territory.
Along with the tusker, a herd of around 70 elephants has come down to the paddy fields from Meghalaya side during this paddy harvesting season. Goalpara is one of the Assam districts which is worst affected by human-elephant conflict where wild elephants trampled nearly 20 villagers this year.
There has been a lull in the harvest in agriculturally-rich Lakhipur as hundreds of farmers are fearful of stepping out of home for fear of the elephants since Saturday. “The situation is such that any moment a major tragedy can happen. Some people in Lakhipur are desperate to chase away the elephants to save their harvest. Had we not enforced section 144 of the CrPC, a few people may already have been killed by the wild jumbos,” Goalpara DC Meenakshi Das Nath told TOI on Sunday.
Nath said section 144 may remain in force for a few days as disturbing the herd can invite disaster. “Till the herd leaves the place, we cannot allow farmers to go near the paddy fields,” she said, adding that efforts are on with the forest department to drive away the elephant herd.
Forest officials are keeping tabs on the movement of the herd, especially the tusker. DFO (territorial), Goalpara, Jitendra Kumar, said the main threat is the tusker, though elephant herds are also roaming in the area. “Usually lonely tuskers attack more than the herds. The tusker elephant did not have a habitat and killed two people in agricultural fields in neighbouring Meghalaya. We are hopeful that it will soon move away from the paddy field near human habitations in Lakhipur,” said Kumar.
He said there are a total of 103 reserve and post-reserve forests in Goalpara district, but these are smaller in size and do not have woody as well as grasslands that can fulfill the nutritional requirements of the elephants. The grave danger, Kumar said, is if the villagers burst firecrackers by villagers as it agitates the tusker. “The tusker was eating paddy and its behaviour seemed to be normal when I inspected it. This season, the main nutritional requirement of elephants is rice,” he added.
Kumar said except for the Ajgar hills, most of the reserve forests in the district are distributed small patches, with a maximum size of 10 sq km. While a combination of woodlands and grasslands in a reserve forest is considered an ideal habitat for elephants, lack of grasslands is creating more problems in Goalpara leading to more human-elephant conflicts.
“Scattered habitat is that problem that is creating human-elephant conflicts in Goalpara. These are large ranging elephants which have high food requirements. They travel from one reserve forest to the other through revenue lands where there are human habitats and paddy fields,” he said.
