Family in Tripura’s Khowai district hides under bed to protect themselves from attack by wild elephants

Teliamura has long been a spot for frequent human-animal conflicts with several cases of monkey and tusker attacks happening in the last few years.

According to local officials, the elephants wandered into the village on Tuesday late evening and later damaged a part of a mud house. They added that nobody was injured in the attack.

The wife of the owner of the house, Sadhana Biswas, said, “We sought refuge under our bed to protect ourselves when a portion of the mud wall broke due to the attack by the wild elephants.”

“We were sleeping when the elephants attacked our house. We somehow escaped unhurt,” said Biswas.

Speaking to the media, her husband demanded the Forest department to either keep the village free from wild elephants or shift the residential area to a safer place.

Last year, a 45-year-old man was trampled to death by wild elephants in Khowai district.

According to the latest report available with the state Forest department, Tripura has 102 elephants, including 42 wild jumbos and 60 in captivity. A fresh elephant survey was undertaken a few years back but the report couldn’t be finalised since the Covid-induced lockdown was imposed soon after.

As a part of setting up a natural defence mechanism for villagers, the Tripura government had started a project to introduce beekeeping in agricultural fields in order to thwart elephant attacks as jumbos are known to fear the insects.

The government has also undertaken initiatives to grow elephant fodder in the jungles through bamboo and banana plantations and has set up watering holes in the forests.

In 2015, the central government had mooted a plan to ‘radio-collar’ the elephants to track their movements and minimise conflicts.