Meghalaya: Wild elephants go on the rampage in SWKH

MAWKYRWAT: The village of Kalaphara in South West Khasi Hills was rampaged by a herd of wild elephants on December 13, leading to the destruction of a house in the village.

The United A’chik Youth Forum (UAYF) has criticised the district authorities stating that the youth forum had earlier alerted the concerned authorities regarding a herd of wild elephants coming through the village.

According to the UAYF, the wild herd of elephants destroyed the house belonging to one Kurinath Ch Sangma at about 7:30 pm.

“On December 12, we had warned the administration and the wildlife division of a group of wild elephants that were spotted nearby and of an impending attack by the pachyderms. However, despite our information, nothing was done on the ground to protect the lives of the people who later ran for their lives when the elephants stormed the village.”

The UAYF also mentioned that this sort of visitation by the elephants is frequent in the area under Ranikor subdivision bordering Bangladesh.

“We have been requesting the state and the district administration to set up a wildlife camp to monitor the situation and help the people in handling the situation. However, these requests have yielded no results.” noted the UAYF.

(Edited by Gabriel G Momin)