Over a dozen elephants have damaged paddy and wheat fields at Shuklaphanta Municipality-5, Garjmuni. Despite taking several measures to chase them, locals could not do anything for the past three days to control the damage.
Jit Bahadur Saud, ward member of Shuklaphanta-5, said, “In the past, elephants used to run away when we show fire, beat tins and make noise.” He said that the locals made an attempt by doing so but the elephants did not run away.
“After entering the fields to feed themselves and eating the crops, they finally went to the national park,” he said, it has become elephants’ yearly ritual to come and damage the crops.
Locals complained that although elephants have been causing damage annually, they have not yet been compensated and the locals fear that elephants might destroy their houses.
In the last three years, four people in the municipality have lost their lives in elephant attacks.