Bangladesh angle to elephant menace

SHILLONG: There is a Bangladesh angle to the depredation being carried out by wild elephants in Garo Hills. Two deaths and damages to crops were caused by the wild elephants which returned to Garo Hills after being chased away from Bangladesh by the farmers who are aggrieved over the loss of their paddy fields due to the rampage of the pachyderms.
A few months ago, two wild elephants from Garo Hills, which crossed over to Bangladesh were trapped by the electric wires set up by the Bangladeshi villagers. The electrocuted ones were part of a herd of wild elephants.
The remaining elephants, chased away by the Bangladeshi villagers, carried out rampage in parts of Garo Hills bordering the neighboring country.
While on November 11, an elderly woman identified as Walji M Sangma was killed by wild elephants at Selbalgre village of Rongram block, near Tura, a school teacher, Arbingstone Ch Marak was trampled to death by a herd of elephants in Katuli village, near Boldamgre, South West Garo Hills on October 28.
The DIG BSF Meghalaya frontier, Mahendra Singh admitted that several months back, two Indian elephants were electrocuted by the Bangladeshi civilians in the border.
Speaking to The Shillong Times, Singh said that since elephants are fond of paddy fields, they migrate to Bangladesh in search of food as it is the season of rice cultivation there and the fencing does not matter to them.  Moreover, Garo Hills-Bangladesh border has elephant corridors.
As the Bangladeshi farmers had put up electric wires to drive away the elephants, there were instances of electrocution of a few wild elephants, the BSF official said.
“We had taken up the matter with our counterparts objecting to the killing of elephants,” the official added.
As per the last survey of 2008, the state has 1811 elephants and the government had said in the past that various initiatives including declaration of elephant reserves, constitution of community reserves, setting up of voluntary protection squads and creation of awareness among the locals would be carried out by the Forest department to prevent elephant depredation.
Over Rs 2 crore is pending to be paid as ex-gratia to the families of victims affected by the depredation of wild elephants in the state.
The ex gratia fixed for loss of human life is Rs 1 lakh, while for the loss of property, the amount is Rs 500.