Wild elephants have been wreaking havoc in Hariwon and Lalbandi areas of Sarlahi district for the past couple of days. The tuskers pulled down houses and destroyed crops.

The residents of Hariwon, Lalbandi and Ishworpur municipalities have been living in constant fear since the jumbos first entered the settlements and wreaked havoc in December last year. Though there was a break in tusker menace for the past two months, the jumbos again started terrorising the locals from Friday.

Two wild elephants entered the Ganesh Chowk area of Hariwon-4 on Friday night and destroyed four houses. The houses belonging to Gopi Pandit, Mustakhim Lahari, Phiroj Mikarani and Khursed Ansari were destroyed in elephants’ attack, said police.

There were no casualties as local residents managed to flee on time. The tuskers dismantled the wooden houses and ate as well as destroyed the food grains stored there.

The elephants tore down a house at Nawalpur of Lalbandi-1 on Friday morning. The house belonging to Ramchandra Mahato was destroyed by the tuskers. According to the locals, the elephants devoured paddy, wheat and other food grains stored in the house.

According to local residents, the elephants stay in the forests nearby during the day and enter the settlements usually at night. The victims complained that the authorities concerned paid no heed even though they have faced elephant attacks for months.

Conservationists tranquilised one of the marauding elephants a few weeks ago and installed a radio collar in their bid to track the beast. That elephant was found dead in Laxminiya forest of Mahottari district a few days ago.

“We human beings have encroached on the habitat of elephants and planted crops. The tuskers sometimes enter human settlements in search of food,” said Madhav Prasad Dev, chief of the Division Forest Office in Sarlahi. According to him, the forest officials and security personnel cannot control the elephants. “We can just chase the elephants away from the settlements. Police personnel and forest officials drove away the elephants on Friday night,” said Dev.