VISAKHAPATNAM: Tribals living along the Andhra-Orissa fear to come out of their homesteads after sunset. The night belongs to the elephant. Herds of migrant pachyderms from forests in Orissa rule the night, trampling crops and destroying plantations. Occasionally a human being gets in the way and pays the price for questioning the majestic beast of the forest. One particular herd from the Lakheri forest in Orissa has frequently triggered panic in Agency areas in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts since 2007. Apart from the loss of crops, elephant incursions have taken 11 lives in the two districts, including one journalist who got too close to the herd back in 2007.With villagers demanding that this menace be curbed, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the AP government have been hard put to it to persuade them that hunting down the intruders is no answer. They took up an operation to lure the tuskers back to their home in Orissa. An elephant trainer was brought along with a tame cow named Jayanthi from Kerala in 2007. After an operation lasting 11 days, the duo managed to lure two of the lost migrants back to Lakheri. However, one of the jumbos died and other such setbacks led to the failure of that operation. With foresters throwing up their hands, the tribals took up the fight themselves. Fearing that this might endanger the very existence of elephants in these forests, the MoEF set up an exclusive Elephant Zone on the border in 2008 and began to dig trenches at strategic points to prevent incursions. “The plan has cut little ice with the tribals of Seetampeta, Veeraghattam and Kotturu mandals who are opposing it because it directly affects their livelihood,’’ says the divisional forest officer of Srikakulam, Mohammod Tayyab. Faced by this impasse, funds allocated for the project have been returned to the authorities.With human beings thus busy, the lost elephants have still not returned to their original home in the Lakheri forest. In the meantime, foresters’ fears of reprisals against the herd have come true. One elephant was electrocuted by local people in Seetampeta. The tribals of Kumbidi Itchapuram in Veeraghattam mandal killed two elephants and buried their carcasses in their fields in October 2010. Following an investigation, the villagers confessed to the murder and now face a trial under the wildlife laws.With the three killings, the herd of 11 has been whittled down to eight. However, only four jumbos have been sighted recently and there is no information about the other four. According to local tribals, the four are very much out there. “It is inevitable for elephants to venture into human habitations in summer in search for water sources,’’ says forester Tayyab.To manage the outcry among villagers, the forest department recruited five trackers to alert villagers about herd movements. As another palliative measure, the government arranges compensation for crop damage wrought by elephants. When the anti-elephant trench plan did not work out, forest officials came up with the device of solar photo electric lights. However, they too have come a cropper.The elephant tracker plan has yielded better results, with fewer instances of crop damage reported in recent weeks.
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