Residents of villages in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district have been forced into nocturnal vigils, guarding their harvested paddy from daring raids by wild elephants. The animals are now regularly storming government procurement centres, tearing open gunny bags, and dragging the precious grain back into the jungle.
Nightly Raids Cause Mounting Losses
According to local officials and villagers, the elephants have caused significant damage, with over 70 bags of paddy destroyed in just the last ten days at the Bengursia village procurement centre alone. The elephants exhibit startling dexterity, using their tusks to lift full bags, flinging some aside, and eating directly from the torn sacks, leaving a trail of scattered grain.
Villager Ramcharan Sethia described the exhausting new routine. With repeated raids leading to mounting losses, the community now switches to an "alert mode" after 8 pm, maintaining watch until around 4 am. In coordination with the forest department, teams of three to four people fan out around the centre, standing at strategic points with torches to deter the approaching herds.
Forest Department on High Alert
The situation came to a head on the night of December 28, when local teams and forest staff were positioned and ready as a herd approached again. Forest guard Vijay Singh Thakur provided details on the elephant movements, stating that around 29 elephants, plus a separate group of five, are currently roaming different parts of the Raigarh forest division. He highlighted that three tuskers are 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," Thakur 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."
A Persistent and Clever Adversary
The elephants have proven to be resilient and clever adversaries. Despite forest staff and villagers flashing torches and making loud noises to scare them off, the animals often circle back. In one instance, a tusker was observed standing quietly in nearby bushes for a long time, seemingly waiting for the commotion to die down before moving in again.
The raids are brazen. Villagers recounted one incident where a tusker drove its tusk into a bag, hooked it, and lifted it away with its trunk. While villagers shouted and followed at a distance, hoping the animal would drop the sack, it calmly carried the bag to the forest edge, ripped it open, and continued its feast.
Authorities have even deployed a specialised "gajraj vehicle" siren repeatedly to push the herd back, but villagers and officials admit this has had limited success. The raids on some nights reportedly continue until 3 am, with the elephants only retreating to the jungle once they have eaten their fill.
Official Response and Compensation
Raigarh SDO (Forest) Manmohan Mishra confirmed that elephant presence around procurement centres has been a consistent issue since the markets opened. "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 explained.
He assured that forest department staff and mandi workers are on continuous watch. A loss assessment is being conducted, and compensation for the damaged paddy will be processed for the affected farmers.
According to forest department estimates, a population of 40 to 45 elephants, including calves, is currently within the Raigarh forest division. Officials note that while larger herds with calves tend to hold back, it is primarily the tuskers that venture right up to the procurement centres, leading to these direct confrontations with the guarding villagers.
