Keonjhar: At a time when man-elephant conflict has taken alarming proportions in Keonjhar district, illegal parking of hundreds of trucks on a stretch of Mumbai-Kolkata NH49 from Suakati to Putulpani Square, which is an elephant corridor under Bhuyan Juanga Pirha (BJP) forest range, has become a bane for the commuters as well as for the animals. Sources said queues stretching as long as 5 km are often seen as drivers park their trucks and wait for their turn to load iron ore from Gandhamardan mines located near Suakati under Bansapal block.
Due to the absence of a parking facility, drivers are forced to park the trucks on the national highway leading to traffic snarls. Due to this, commuters face a harrowing time during their travel and accidents also occur often on the highway resulting in loss of life and property. As this area is an elephant corridor, pachyderms also cross the highway often to the other side and face serious difficulties. Sources said the Bhuyan Juang Pirha (BJP) forest range area in Keonjhar forest division, which extends up to Sundargarh and Angul forest division, is a favourite habitat of the elephants. The movement of elephants can be seen on NH-49 at various points of time throughout the year. The Forest Department has put up information plaques at various strategic points, which warn commuters and motorists not to encroach upon the area by parking their vehicles and control the speed of the vehicles.
Environmentalists and wildlife lovers have expressed their displeasure over the illegal parking of trucks. They lamented that the Forest Department is not taking any legal action against the vehicles for blocking the elephant corridor. Many a time, the animals fail to cross the road and move ahead, get disturbed stray into nearby localities and unleash a reign of terror. On the other hand, truck drivers also suffer untold hardships as they have to park their vehicles on the highway due to the lack of a parking yard. “We are facing a hard time with difficulties without food and drinking water and rest facilities. No one is hearing our problems,” said Prafulla Sahu, a truck driver.
Social activist Pradeep Mohanty said that despite earning huge profits, neither the mining companies and the truck owners’ associations nor the administration constructs a parking yard in the area. A parking arrangement has been made near Tentuli village in Suakati but that too has been identified as an elephant corridor, he added. A trucker Ayeshkanta Pattnayak said if the main gate of the place is shifted one km from Putulupani Square then the problem of parking on the NH could be avoided. However, no one is taking it seriously despite several complaints, he alleged.
Local people alleged that the police personnel and the Transport department are not taking steps to clear traffic snarls on the highway despite frequent accidents occurring on the route which have claimed many lives in the past few years. Forest range officer Nayankanta Sahu said it is illegal to block the elephant corridor. He said that the department has been reminding the NHAI patrolling team to clear the highway of illegal parking but they are yet to take a call on the matter. This issue has also been taken up in many inter-departmental coordination meetings but to no avail. In this regard, Divisional Forest Officer, Keonjhar Dhanraj HD said, “Insignias have been installed at several spots for the safe movement of elephants in the corridors and the Forest Department is taking action against the violators.”