EXCLUSIVE Keonjhar, October 11 (Odisha.in) Hundreds of poor tribal from more than a dozen of villages in Orissa’s Keonjhar district go out of their home after evening, climb trees and stay in the temporary hut they have built on tree whole night.
They stay not for fun but to protect their crops from marauding elephants-the animals more often appear from the local forest and devastate their crops.
They take shelter on platform above tree and watch the movement of the elephants. Some wait in side the cultivated field in temporary shelter they built putting their lives at risk.
When elephant herds come out from the village and enter into the cultivated fields to eat crops the villagers climb down from the tree and join the people who reside in the field to drive out the elephants with light, fire, beating drum and tins.
During the day time they work hard for their daily living and in the night they are passing several sleepless nights this way.
This has become regular phenomena in the rural area in villages under Sadar, Banspal,Ghatagaon, Harichandanpur, Telkoi, Patana blocks in this district.
The elephant menaces in Keonjhar have become a regular phenomenon and no body seems to be bothered about it, local administration or the government.
Many poor farmers lost all there crops with out getting compensation .Many of them are now living miserable life.
The juangas of Phuljhar village under Pandapada police station have lost all there crops.
In the same village Arjun Pradhan on tribal poor farmer died when he fell down from a 30 feet height from a temporary shed in the tree on 29 th of September while watching his crops. He is survived with wife and two sisters and a son.
The family is now facing poverty as the earning man is no more. They come under below poverty line but no help from the government has reached them.
At least six herds of elephants are moving in those block areas and are often eating
After the death of Arjuna his family now lives in penury
out crops. The conflict between man and elephant have rose and the government has failed to protect there lives and properties.
The forest cover has been depleted recently in an alarming scale because of the operation of heavy mining and industries in the area. As a result of which the elephants are moving out of the forest in search of foods.
Odisha.in