Marooned
The 10th mile forest village in Sukna range of mahananda wildlife sanctuary was recently fenced in. Its ironic but it works. People are fenced inside their villages and the elephants marooned on the islands of forest patches. Both, in a way, are victims of the historical profligacy and misuse of the forest.
The entire perimeter of the village has been secured using an energised fence. The village houses 23 families officially and a few unofficial ones. Since the fence has come up the number of raids have come down considerably. Gobind Roka, resident in the villages says, "The elephants still come raiding. The male tuskers are able to break through. We know of two bulls who break through regularly and then the rest follow. But things are much better now. This year we grew paddy. We had given up entirely on cultivation and taken up daily labour."
Selling timber and firewood, though illegal, had become the only job for many people in the village, he remembers. It still is for many, he tells. Things improved a bit in between he remembers, "An earlier officer in the department had helped us a lot, convinced us to start sericulture, grow crops that the elephants don't eat. It brought us some money and a hope that things can work out. Now we manage the fence. The village clears the grass under the fence to prevent earthing. We have learnt to fix the fence though the party the forest department too comes to repair."
The fence can only compliment other more constructive activities, he explains. "The conflict is a livelihood problem in my village. As long as people don't have work they shall go out and cut forests. Elephants shall then troop out. Somebody needs to break this cycle or very soon the fences shall also fail," he says worried about the years to come.
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