- Bhutanese believe that the sight of this pachyderm, The Precious Elephant, one of the Seven Jewels, brings good luck and prosperity. Ironically, for farmers living in the southern dzongkhags, it is quite the opposite. The elephant also symbolizes strength and this aspect is more apt as herds of wild elephants running wild and destroying acres of crops have been a regular routine every summer. The most recent incident reported from Sarpang involved a herd of 12 elephants ravaging crops and destroying huts and semi-permanent houses on the night of July 12 in Singhe gewog. According to the Singhe gewog administrative officer, Nidup Gyeltshen, about 31.3 acres of maize crops, five huts, two semi-permanent houses, 227 arecanut trees and 307 banana trees were destroyed in the rampage. "Of the 12 villages in the gewog, Deorali and Theomba villages were affected most,' said Nidup Gyeltshen. "A few kitchen utensils and wooden boxes were also trampled and smashed.' As an immediate strategy to tackle the situation, the divisional and dzongkhag forestry team has intensified its patrolling groups. The divisional forest officer in Sarpang, Kado Tshering, told Kuensel that the division is deploying four teams everyday to guard the affected areas. According to the agriculture ministry's extension officer in Singhe, C N Dhimal, such damage occurs every year and there are villages like Hatikhor and Koigaon in the gewog where elephant rampages are an annual nuisance. Officials told Kuensel that Singhe gewog, which was abandoned for a long time, had become a habitat for the wild elephants. "With resettlements, it became a conflict of intrusion into each other's habitat,' an official told Kuensel. Although Singhe gewog is vulnerable to elephant rampages every year, there is no electric fencing like at other places in the southern dzongkhags. "The division couldn't provide electric fencing to the gewog because of budget constraints,' Kado Tshering told Kuensel. "But we're exploring budget for it.' Forest guards were supplied with kerosene to drive away the elephants by using firecrackers. But when the numbers were large, blank firing and firing in the air were done to chase the elephants away. Meanwhile, the gewog administrative office is also mobilising local people in joint guarding of crops and property, along with the forestry team. While the people await compensation from the government, the divisional forest officer told Kuensel that the division has no budget allocated for compensation on destruction caused by elephants. The dzongkhag agriculture officer, Tashi Wangdi, told Kuensel that there is no resource in the dzongkhag for compensation. But the agriculture office would submit details to the ministry of home and cultural affairs' disaster management division. "We're in fact leaving it to the government at large to look into the matter,' Tashi Wangdi told Kuensel. On July 13, a team led by the Sarpang dzongda visited the gewog to assess damages caused by the elephants and the dzongkhag also decided to request reinforcement from the police force if more marauding takes place. By Tashi Dema