Forest Minister Vikram Usendi has informed that the wild elephants had destroyed over 7000 public properties including 610 houses in the past seven months (from January to July 2011). During this period, the tuskers also killed 11 people, he said. Udendi’s information came in the form of a written reply to a question of Congress legislator Nandkumar Patel during ongoing monsoon session of the state Assembly on Friday.
Informing about the tusker-terror and the number of lives and property loss in the state, Usendi said one from Korba, four from Dharamjaigarh, two from North Sarguja, three from Jashpur and one from Guru Ghasidas National Park lost their lives while five got injured.
He said in 6402 incidents the wild elephants destroyed crops while in 610 incidents they entered populated areas and damaged houses.
On compensation being given to the victims of tuskers, the minister said over 10.40 lakh had been distributed against property loss while Rs 24557 had been given to each of the injured person.
To prevent tuskers’ movement in populated areas and minimise property loss, the government has constituted different types of teams tracking teams, he said. The information system has also been upgraded and alerted and patrolling is being done continuously, he added.
Besides, fencing has been done in many tusker-affected villages. The Forest department also organised important training programme for the patrolling and special vigilant teams along with the villagers. The training was imparted by ‘hulla party’, a group of experts from West Bengal who deal with wild elephants effectively, he said. The minister further informed that Sarguja-Jashpur elephant reserve would soon come into existence as the process was underway.
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