Thaindian News

Raipur, Jan 3 (IANS) For the last week, about a dozen tribal families in Chhattisgarh’s Surguja district have been spending their nights in the open despite the chilly weather after a herd of wild elephants attacked their homes and continued to stalk the area, a forest official said Tuesday.

“Some 13 tribal families of Khairbar village in Surguja have been going through a horrifying time since Dec 27 as a group of nine wild elephants demolished their mud-built houses,” forest official Ravindra Netam told IANS over phone.

He said poor tribal families were spending nights in an extremely chilly weather as the jumbos reach the village late night from a nearby forested area.

The official said villagers were advised not to burst crackers or use bonfire to keep the elephants away as these methods could agitate the jumbos.

The Chhattisgarh government admitted in the state assembly recently that some 103 wild jumbos were roaming in the state, mainly in the northern region comprising Surguja, Jashpur, Raigarh, Korea and Korba districts.

Eleven people were killed in attacks by jumbos in the state January-July, 2011 while a record 7,023 cases of attacks on houses, standing crops and forest residents were reported during that period.