Elephants raid Chhattisgarh’s paddy centres night after night; over 70 bags damaged

By Rashmi Drolia

Villagers in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district are spending their nights guarding paddy stacks from wild elephants that now regularly storm govt purchase centres, tear open gunny bags and drag them back into the jungle. According to villagers, elephants have damaged over 70 bags of paddy in the last 10 days, adding that the elephants were seen lifting full bags with their tusks, flinging some aside and eating from the torn sacks, leaving grain scattered across the ground.
At the Bengursia village paddy procurement centre, elephants have damaged over 70 bags of paddy in the last 10 days, local officials and villagers said.
With repeated raids and mounting losses, villager Ramcharan Sethia said they now switch to “alert mode” after 8 pm and remain on watch till around 4 am. In coordination with the forest department, three- to four-member teams fan out around the centre, standing at different points with torches in hand to try and keep elephants from reaching the stock.
On the night of Dec 28, local teams and forest staff were ready in position when the herd approached again. Forest guard Vijay Singh Thakur said around 29 elephants and a separate group of five are currently roaming different parts of Raigarh forest division, with three tuskers particularly active in the Bengursia belt.

“On Thursday evening around 7.30 pm, a group of three elephants walked right up to the Bengursia mandi,” he said. “One by one, they carried away paddy bags, ate some, and scattered some. This has been happening almost every night for about ten days.”
Even as forest staff and villagers flash torches and make loud sounds to scare them off, the elephants often circle back. One tusker was seen standing quietly in the bushes near the stacks for a long time, waiting for the area to calm down before moving in again.
At one point, a tusker drove its tusk into a bag, hooked it, and lifted it away with its trunk as villagers shouted and followed at a distance, hoping it would drop the sack. Instead, it carried the bag into the forest edge, ripped it open and continued eating.

A specialised “gajraj vehicle” siren was also used repeatedly to push the herd back, but with limited success, villagers and officials said. The raids reportedly went on till about 3 am, after which, once they had eaten their fill, the elephants finally retreated to the jungle.

Raigarh SDO (forest) Manmohan Mishra said elephant presence around procurement centres has been consistent since the mandis started.

“Elephants are lifting paddy bags, spilling and eating the grain. Sometimes they arrive as early as 7 pm, and on some nights they come twice,” he said. “Our staff and mandi workers are on continuous watch. A loss assessment is being done and compensation will be processed.”

According to forest department estimates, around 40–45 elephants, including calves, are currently in Raigarh forest division. A group of five and larger herds are active in different circles, with up to 31 elephants reported near Padigaon range alone. Officials said tuskers are primarily the ones venturing right up to the procurement centre; the larger herds with calves tend to hold back.

This article has been republished from The Times of India.