News from Gajapati,ORISSA 7th May 2007

Paralakhemundi (7.5.2007):

The wild tuskers who had gone on rampage in the Kasinagar Block of Gajapati killing two persons and injuring another lady and destroying properties and houses besides destroying seasonal crops ,are still loitering around this area keeping the villagers of this block on tenterhook . The wild elephants who had escaped from the Lakhari Elephant sanctuary in the Mohona Block of Gajapati , had in the last fortnight traveled into the adjoining Rayagada District into the GPs of Padamapur and Gudari before they traveled back into the Gajapati District through the densely populated Gunupur Block of the Rayagada District . There are reports that the elephants had used the road passing through the GIET Engineering College before they forayed into the Gajapati District vide the Sara , Badigan and Allada villages . Why the elephants attacked a hutment and killed its inmates is still a mystery as the wife of the victim who escaped miraculously has yet to give a vivid description of the entire incident . On the other hand the Forest Department staff led by Ranger Gouri Prasad Rath are hard pressed on the task of making the elephants go back to their sanctuary , no doubt a very difficult task considering that they have to be trekked back around 100km . By the time of reporting the elephants have been sighted near the Siali Village which is a bordering village on the Rayagada -Gajapati District border . The villagers of the Ullabhadra Village faced the wrath of the tuskers on their way back as the elephants destroyed houses belonging to P Raghunath , P Suggribalu ,P Surya and N Sundarika ,by pulling down the tinned roofs of their houses and fed themselves on the grains , rice ,pulses stored inside the tenements . Though fearful but angered at the havoc created by the monsters more than 500 tribals armed with drums , crackers , bows and arrows and cymbals all belonging to the villages of Majyalaguda , Lentaguda ,Taminguda ,Dindiguda ,Retaguda ,Ullabhadra , Yetamguda all in Kasinagar Block and a few from the Regada Village in the Gunupur Block are busy trying to shoo away the elephants as far as they can from their area . “The forest department staff do not have the expertise nor the manpower to deal with the situation and they are only keeping a watch on the herd hoping that the same will return back on the path they had come” says Satynarayan Choudhry a local correspondent who has been keeping a tab on the movement of the elephants .While the exact number in the herd has yet to be established there are reports that the herd consisting of 11 members are being led by a female along with two calves .