Parjang: A herd of elephants caused massive damage to plantain, sugarcane, jackfruit and coconut farms in Baigunia village under Mahabiroda forest range of Dhenkanal district Sunday night.
According to locals, elephants damaged plantain and coconut trees in Hemant Sahu’s farm before moving over to damage the entire yield of Rajendra Pani, Srikant Majhi, Dambaru Majhi, Akhila Bhoi and Lochan Bhoi.
According to the villagers, even though the Forest department was intimated, forester Rama Chandra Rout did not reach the venue on time.
The forester, while admitting the delay, has said that he had been to Dadaraghati on some work leading to the delayed response.
Meanwhile, ranger Haramohan Nayak has said that the department has sent a guard to the village to assess the damage. Compensation would be disbursed to the victims as per government norms.
It may be mentioned that elephants straying into fields and damaging crops have been a regular affair here. Even though the issue has been intimated to the Forest department on a number of occasions, the department is yet to take any concrete action, villager alleged while requesting the department to compensate their loss as early as possible.
That said, the elephants have been causing panic among the villagers and have become a burden for them as the Forest department has failed to drive them away from human habitation permanently.
PNN