A herd of a dozen wild elephants wreaked havoc in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district on Sunday.
The wild elephants destroyed houses and other properties in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district. However, no casualties were reported.
According to wildlife researcher Vanoomitra Acharya, the main reason why elephants damage the houses was the gradual decline in forest areas due to illegal mining in the region.
"The main reason behind this is that forests are vanishing due to illegal mining and elephants are losing their natural habitat. People here are being affected by this heavily," Acharya told ANI news agency.
People ran out of their homes after the elephants invaded their houses.
The locals have informed the authorities about the matter.
Earlier, on July 16, a herd of 18 wild elephants had wreaked havoc in Karanjia area of Mayurbhanj as they destroyed houses and live stocks. The locals have been spending sleepless nights due to elephant menace for the last few days.
However, the elephants' attacks are more common in Chhattisgarh. The state's legislative assembly recently informed that a total of 204 people were killed in elephant attacks in the last three years (2018, 2019, and 2020) while 45 jumbos also died during this period.
In total, 75,081 cases of deaths and injuries to people and damage to crops, houses, and other properties in the elephant attacks (were registered), and a compensation of ₹57,81,63,655 was paid in these three years, Chhattisgarh forest minister Mohammad Akbar said.
