(IN): Want to grab land? Send jumbos - Naga hoodlums let loose wild herds to scare away Assam villagers

[Guest guest]

Wildlife enforcement is unfortunately a state subject as far as India

is concerned.

Yet another example of shame for us as the following news report goes

to highlight how the movement of migratory wild elephants is tortured

for state disputes.

And we still go to frame such incidents as Human-Elephant conflicts.

 

After hearing all this do we still believe that wildlife crime is to

be dealt with only by the respective states and the forest ministry

alone ?

 

This matter needs to be brought into the notice of the Home Ministry

and also the Prime Minister before it becomes a model for other states

to follow. Or should we wait till the elephant population downsizes to

that of the Indian Tiger, perhaps that is when we get a little

serious.

 

Azam Siddiqui

 

 

Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070721/asp/northeast/story_8084986.asp

 

Want to grab land? Send jumbos

- Naga hoodlums let loose wild herds to scare away Assam villagers

PULLOCK DUTTA

 

Guwahati, July 20: When you can't force them, scare them away.

 

Naga hoodlums are allegedly letting loose herds of wild elephants to

scare away Assam villagers from their land and property in the

disputed area in Sivasagar district along the Assam-Nagaland border.

 

So much so that the Assam forest department has lodged a formal

complaint with the Nagaland government to " stop the hoodlums " from

disturbing the wild elephant herds at Geleki reserve forest, which

straddles both sides of the border.

 

Amal Sharma, divisional forest officer of Sivasagar, told The

Telegraph that Naga goons use countrymade guns and crude bombs to

drive the elephant herds into human habitation on the Assam side of

the border. It is the same area which very recently saw an early

morning attack by a large group of Naga criminals, which left two

persons dead and many houses razed in three Assam villages.

 

Sharma said the goons came up with the idea after they found it

difficult to sneak into Assam to foment trouble because of stepped-up

security. " Now they are using wild elephants, " he said.

 

Assam and Nagaland have been at loggerheads for several decades now

over the vexed border issue, with both states accusing each other of

encroachment. On Wednesday, the village council chairman of Anaki

Basti in Nagaland's Mokokchung district, Lunku Mara, issued a

directive to Assam villagers residing in the border area to vacate the

land since it belonged to them.

 

The commanding officer of 1st Assam Police Battalion, A. Kuddus, said

the villagers in the bordering areas leave their home at nightfall and

move to the safety of Geleky town for fear of not only attackers but

also elephants. " Now the fear is more from wild elephants than Naga

criminals, " the police officer said.

 

Kuddus, who is in charge of the volatile Assam-Nagaland border in

Sivasagar district, said goons from Nagaland have always been trying

to grab Assam land and the elephants are making their job easy. " If

the elephants constantly venture into the villages, the people will

have no option but to vacate the land permanently. This would make the

job easier for the goons to grab the abandoned land, " he said.

 

Last night, too, villagers in the Nagajuri area under Geleki police

station panicked after gunshots rang out and bombs exploded.

 

Sharma said the forest department has asked a team of senior

government officials from Nagaland — who met at the Sivasagar circuit

house — to take necessary steps against indiscriminate firing which

disturb the elephants.

 

Kuddus said border patrolling has been intensified after the Geleki

incident in which two villagers were killed and several houses

torched. " Security has been intensified to instil confidence among the

villagers living in the border areas, but here we are facing a new

enemy, " he said.

 

 

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