Drought drives animals to villages in Chattisgarh

MAINPUR (Chattisgarh), DEC. 10. Wild animals, falling prey to the current spell of unprecedented drought in Chattisgarh, are turning to villages and have started attacking the people and cattle.

``Two weeks back, a tiger came down from the reserve forest to the deep pond in our locality and took away one domestic animal,'' said Ms. Kunjum, a resident of Nayagarh under Gariaband block of Raipur district.

Ms. Sumati of Bendra Nuagaon said wild animals' visits to their hamlets had increased in the recent times. They were mainly attracted to the water course in the residential areas as there was acute water shortage in the dense forest due to lack of rains since September.

``This is a recent trend... the wild animals are approaching human settlement areas in search of water,'' said Mr. Manohar Baghel, a ward member of Kularighat of Mainpur block near the Udanti Sanctuary, about 130 km from Raipur. A girl was killed by a tiger in the village area last month.

Bears, leopards and tigers were taking away animals from the villagers, said farmer Ram Sundar Sahu of Mainpur. Of late, it had become too risky to travel after evening hours for fear of being attacked by wild animals.

Police confirmed the reports and the officer in-charge of the Mainpur police station, Mr. P. R. Sahu, said a girl was recently attacked by a tiger.

A local Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Dr. Ram Prasad Sinha, said going by the way people played with the environment one should not be surprised if the number of incidents increased.

About 50 per cent of the forest area had depleted in Mainpur reserve forest. Depletion of drinking water was felt in the middle of the dense forest and if remedial measures were not taken immediately, things might go out of hand.

- PTI

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