Sixty elephants creating havoc at Arunachal village

ITANAGAR: A herd of 60 elephants has been creating havoc at Mer village in East Siang district since the last couple of days damaging crops.

The district forests authority swung into action after being informed of the menace created by the pachyderms with DFO B Darang asking the officers to look into the man-animal conflict and help villagers.

Darang also instructed the range forest officer at Mebo to assess the extent of damages.

He said that necessary arrangement has been made to tackle the raiding jumbos.

"More Kunki elephants (tamed elephants to drive away the wild ones) will be used while involving local people on wage basis. Crackers have been purchased to be used for the purpose," he added.

Meanwhile, Mer anchal samiti member (ASM) Vinod Perme said that more elephants have joined the herd whose number has gone up to around 60.

"To our utter dismay, more elephants have joined the herd on Friday last causing more tension to the villagers around, including Paglam area of Lower Dibang valley," he said.