Tusker travails
Last year, when a herd of elephants from the Purulia forests of Bihar made its annual trek to greener areas in the Bankura and Medinipur districts of West Bengal, it strayed close to Calcutta, causing much fear (Down To Earth, Vol No February 15, 1994). This year, the tuskers have remained confined to a straighter and narrower path within the 2 districts, but that did not prevent clashes between humans and the pachyderms.
All along the way, villagers incensed by elephants ravaging standing crops attacked the herd with stones, spears and other weapons. The tuskers responded by killing at least 4 people and seriously injuring about a dozen people in the southeastern parts of Bankura alone.
The incidents have prompted West Bengal's state forest department to reiterate its case for long stretches of electrified fencing to hem in the elephants.
Interestingly, the principal chief conservator of forests has pleaded that as a short-term alternative, "a natural calamity fund which would compensate the villagers for loss of property and crops during the seasonal migrations of the pachyderms" be established.