Residents of Ishworpur Municipality in Sarlahi have been living in constant fear of wild elephants in the area. In the past three months, the elephants destroyed more than five dozen houses in Ishworpur Municipality alone and a hundred houses in Sarlahi district.

According to the locals, wild elephants made their way to the village from the Chure region.

“Our lives and properties are at stake. Authorities should adopt permanent measures to prevent the elephant depredation,” said Dhukha Das, a resident of Ishworpur Munici-pality-15.

The elephants stay in Sagarnath forest during daytime and enter the village at night, locals said.

“The elephants have made our life miserable. We have even stopped going to the forest to collect fodder and firewood,” said Das.

Although the villagers form groups and attempt to chase the elephants away by building fires, blowing firecrackers and making a racket, the elephants stand their ground.

Mayor Manoj Devkota said they have been seeking help from the Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoFE) to control the wild elephants. “We met Shakti Bahadur Basnet, a minister at the MoFE, and requested him to help us control these elephants and mitigate the threat they pose to our lives and properties,” said Devkota.

The MoFE had deployed a special team from the Parsa National Park to control the elephant menace but to no avail, locals say. Madhav Prasad Dev, chief of the Division Forest Office, said they have been unable to drive the elephants back to the Parsa National Park.  

“We have told the villagers to stay alert. We have also taken initiatives to compensate the victims’ families,” said Dev.