Nepal: Wounded Herd (elephants)

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Wounded Herd

30 Jul 2007, 0330 hrs IST,Pinakpriya Bhattacharya & Prithvijit

Mitra,TNN

 

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Her cries pierced the morning air in Bamondangi forest. As

villagers peeped out of their homes in fear, the mammoth animal appeared from

behind the trees and bushes, hobbling on three legs and desperately trying to

keep moving. It kept lashing its trunk on the ground in pain. After struggling

for more than an hour, it collapsed - and bled to death.

 

 

A few miles away, her death was ‘avenged'. The dead elephant's

herd - at least a dozen of them also bleeding from bullet injuries - went

berserk in a Naxalbari village and tore a villager to pieces.

 

It's a new chapter in the man-elephant conflict in north

Bengal - and the bloodiest yet. The female elephant that was killed on July 11

in Bamondangi and the 12 others in the herd were not shot by poachers or

villagers. The suspicion is on the Nepal Army. Forest officials admit it is an

unprecedented incident.

 

Initially, the forest authorities of Nepal denied the

shooting. A post- mortem, however, revealed the truth. " The animal was shot by a

sophisticated bullet. It was killed in Nepal,” confirmed S P Sharma, divisional

forest officer of Jhapa in Nepal.

 

And it is not just this herd. Forest officials say there are

at least 40 injured - and angry - elephants on the prowl in north Bengal. Some

have been hit by ‘sophisticated bullets', the rest with crude bullets, arrows

and spears. " Such attacks turn elephants violent and revengeful,” said a

wildlife official.

 

The man-elephant conflict has been going on for generations

but there was never more blood spilt than in the last five to seven years. It

coincides with large-scale encroachment of the 300-km elephant corridor, from

Naxalbari on the Nepal border to Sankosh in the east.

 

" It is not a happy situation. North Bengal has a huge

population of settlers who don't know the rules of coexistence with animals.

Elephants are being attacked more often than in the past,” says S S Bist,

principal chief conservator of forests, formerly Director of Project Elephants.

 

It is but natural for wounded elephants to turn on humans,

too. The herd that was shot at in Nepal has already killed two people and

rampaged through villages in Dakshin Dhupjora, Ramsai, Batabari, Nipaniya and

Khuniya.

 

" It is a vicious cycle of elephants straying into villages,

being attacked and then wreaking havoc somewhere else. We need a definite

strategy to protect these animals. We are leaving them at the mercy of marauding

humans, who, in fact, are the intruders. There have never been so many injured

elephants in this region,” said an official.

According to estimates, 40 per cent of north Bengal's

population of 350 elephants are injured. With just two guards per 250-370

hectares of forest, it's open country for poachers.

 

Last week, villagers in Nipaniya, Naxalbari, were shocked to

see an elephant with most of its skin peeling off and bleeding from multiple

injuries.

 

" It didn't look like it would survive for long. There could be

scores of injured elephants roaming the forests,” says Raj Mahato, a local. The

authorities, however, claim most of these injuries are natural.

 

" I have heard that many elephants have been recently injured

but none in my area so far,” says Jalpaiguri DFO Tapas Das. His counterpart in

Darjeeling, Sumita Ghatak, admits that elephants are being hounded by humans.

" Locals should change their cultivation pattern and convert to crops that won't

attract elephants.

 

" Since the elephant corridor has been encroached by humans, we

must make adjustments for the sake of elephants. Or else, there is no end to

this crisis,” she said.

 

Villagers don't see the logic. " Why should we change? Isn't it

the government's responsibility to protect our crops?”

 

asks Subhas Jaishi, a Batabari resident. The anger against

elephants is even more bitter across the border, in Nepal.

 

" The people here see them as enemies, so elephants could be

attacked again. We hope India will work out something,” says the Jhapa (Nepal)

DFO, S P Sharma. Nepalese villagers mince no words. " If the elephants come

again, we will throw them out. It is a question of our survival,” says

Tekbahadur Chhetri. The elephant, it seems, has to fend for itself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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