Raipur, Dec 12 - About 800 tribal people of a remote area of Koriya district in Chhattisgarh have temporarily deserted their village as a herd of elephants has destroyed their houses and crops, forest officials said Wednesday.'A herd of wild elephants, which strayed into the region a week ago has been causing panick among the people, mainly in Salwa village, and Tuesday they ran amok, destroying crops and a number of houses,' a local forest official told IANS Wednesday over phone.About 800 tribal people of Salwa village and its neighbouring areas, located some five km from Baikunthpur, Koriya district headquarters, have migrated to safer areas fearing more such attacks by the elephants in the nights, the official said.The tribals will return to their native village only after they get ensured that elephants have moved away from the village, he added.The northern region of Chhattisgarah, which include districts like Koriya, Surguja, Jashpur, Raigarh and Korba, often faces elephant attacks. Generally, the wild elephants come to these areas in herds from neighbouring forest belts of Jharkhand.Officials say in the past two years the man-elephant conflicts in those areas have significantly increased and claimed 42 lives. The officials also blame the state's poverty-hit interior tribal population for encroaching into the elephants' natural habitat for fire-wood and forest products.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
