Wild elephants ravage farms in Peren district

Our Reporter Dimapur, Nov. 11 (EMN): A herd of wild elephants has been wreaking havoc at multiple farmlands in New Ngaulong village in Peren district, in yet another unfortunate incident of human-elephant conflict in Nagaland. The chairman of the village, Chunggai Zeliang informed Eastern Mirror that a herd of wild elephants have destroyed around five to six farms that belonged to the villagers in the last few days. Zeliang informed that since October 23-24, wild elephants have been entering the farmland and destroying thatched houses and sheds. “They are reaching our homes and it is very scary as we do not have any crackers to scare away the elephants,” the chairman informed and added that the most recent incident was on November 9, involving two adult elephants.  “We do not want to kill them by gun as it will cause another problem but these elephants are not even scared of fire,” informed Zeliang. Furthermore, the wildlife warden of Dimapur informed that a few officials would be heading to Peren on Tuesday to take stock of the situation and provide awareness and training to the villagers. Earlier this year, the then chief wildlife warden of Nagaland, RK Aima while speaking to this newspaper, agreed that the conflict had been going on for a long time. The animals were trapped with the creation of new villages, he said, adding that many awareness programmes had been conducted ‘but another solution was the dire need’. “We want to convert the areas to conservation reserves where villagers will also be benefited if they comply,” Aima had stated. He further informed that the villagers would be benefited through schemes in regards to conserving wildlife; and this will help solve the problem to some extent. “There are already around 74-93 conservation reserves in Nagaland and many applications from villages have come from different parts to convert their areas into conservation reserves,” Aima had shared.