Rampaging jumbos are new threat in Gadchiroli

Nagpur: Elephants are emerging as a new threat in the Maoist-affected Gadchiroli district. Rampaging jumbos have damaged crops and properties, affecting nearly 1,800 farmers in the district, in a single financial year. Elephant attacks also killed four humans.

A herd that entered Gadchiroli from Chhattisgarh two years ago has made the district its home now and has grown to 32 which the foresters said is a fairly good number. Even as the re-emergence of elephants in Vidarbha landscape after nearly a century, the conflict with humans remains a problem to be addressed, said officials.

The herd remains in the forests during the day but enters villages at night. The pachyderms leave standing crops and even homesteads damaged as they move towards human inhabitation, said a forest department source. This has made the department's first priority to process the compensation cases at the earliest, said an official.

According to data sourced from the forest department, 1,800 cases (individual farmers) of compensation for either crop or property damage were cleared in the financial year that ended March 2025, said a source in the forest department. There may be some overlapping if a single farmer reported a case of crop loss as well as damage to properties, but such cases would be minuscule, said an officer handling the cases. In monetary terms, the compensation comes to over Rs 3.5 crore for the losses. Another Rs 1 crore was paid for the four lives lost, said the source.

The forest department is creating awareness among the locals that they should not attempt to drive away the elephants from their farms to avoid any human deaths. They are being assured that the compensation will be quickly paid off. The amount of individual damage varies. In some cases, it may be merely less than an acre, but the amount is paid with a quick assessment. There have been no deaths since April.

Normally, the elephants have been spotted in Dhanora, Kurkheda, and Desaiganj talukas, the source said. Compensation has been capped at Rs 50,000 per case — the highest that can be offered — and not many cases are of that amount.

Nagpur: Elephants are emerging as a new threat in the Maoist-affected Gadchiroli district. Rampaging jumbos have damaged crops and properties, affecting nearly 1,800 farmers in the district, in a single financial year. Elephant attacks also killed four humans.

A herd that entered Gadchiroli from Chhattisgarh two years ago has made the district its home now and has grown to 32 which the foresters said is a fairly good number. Even as the re-emergence of elephants in Vidarbha landscape after nearly a century, the conflict with humans remains a problem to be addressed, said officials.

The herd remains in the forests during the day but enters villages at night. The pachyderms leave standing crops and even homesteads damaged as they move towards human inhabitation, said a forest department source. This has made the department's first priority to process the compensation cases at the earliest, said an official.

According to data sourced from the forest department, 1,800 cases (individual farmers) of compensation for either crop or property damage were cleared in the financial year that ended March 2025, said a source in the forest department. There may be some overlapping if a single farmer reported a case of crop loss as well as damage to properties, but such cases would be minuscule, said an officer handling the cases. In monetary terms, the compensation comes to over Rs 3.5 crore for the losses. Another Rs 1 crore was paid for the four lives lost, said the source.

The forest department is creating awareness among the locals that they should not attempt to drive away the elephants from their farms to avoid any human deaths. They are being assured that the compensation will be quickly paid off. The amount of individual damage varies. In some cases, it may be merely less than an acre, but the amount is paid with a quick assessment. There have been no deaths since April.

Normally, the elephants have been spotted in Dhanora, Kurkheda, and Desaiganj talukas, the source said. Compensation has been capped at Rs 50,000 per case — the highest that can be offered — and not many cases are of that amount.