Wild elephants damage crops, houses in Jamalpur

A herd of 30/35 wild elephants coming down from Balughat area of India's Meghalaya state damaged crops on around 50 bighas of land at Makhonerchar village under Dewanganj upazila of the district on Monday night.

Twenty-seven bighas of wheat, 20 bighas of mustard and three bighas of pulse fields of 30 farmers of the village were damaged by the elephants from 10:00pm to 3:00am. They also damaged two houses of farmer Jahurul Islam.

Afsar Ali, Shukkur Miah, Rahim, Abdur Razzak, Abdul Aziz, Taher Munsi, Abdul Mazid, Shahidur Rahman, Jahurul Islam, Nuruzzaman, Shahid Zaman, Abdus Sattar, Majnu Miah, Mohor Munsi, Ashraf Ali and Muzammel are among the affected farmers, said Lutfor Rahman, member of the Dangdhora Union Parishad.

Villagers lighted fires, beat drums and made loud sounds to drive away the herd. They finally chased them away from the village around 3:00am, said college student Al Amin, son of affected farmer Nuruzzaman.

"The local administration provided us with four generators 10/12 days ago to light up the area so that the wild elephants would fear to enter the village, but we could not use the generators due to lack of electric bulbs, wires and fuel. As a result, we have been facing severe trouble created by the elephants from the neighbouring Indian state," the UP member said.

Villagers should be given training on how to drive away the wild elephants from the locality, he added. 

Finding no other means, villagers donated Tk 28,000 a few days ago to purchase the necessary materials to operate the generators for lighting up the area.

Contacted, Md Aminul Islam, Dewanganj upazila nirbahi officer, said the villagers have been given four generators and some torchlights to take preventive measures against the wild elephants.