Hundreds of villagers in East Burdwan’s Khandoghosh had to go against lockdown rules early on Saturday to save their paddy crop from two marauding elephants that had come from Bankura’s Sonamukhi forest.

Sources said the villagers had been following the lockdown rules enforced to thwart the spread of the coronavirus. Early on Saturday, two farmers informed villagers about two elephants entering the village. As the news spread, hundreds of villagers of Khandoghosh and those from nearby villages gathered at various points with torches and dhols to drive away the jumbos.

“What could we do? The crop is our only option to survive in the near future. Those who worked in shops or in farms elsewhere have returned home because of the lockdown. We gathered in groups of at least 300 people to drive away the elephants as they were ruining our boro crop. However, we couldn’t save our crops,” said Sheikh Naser Ali, a farmer from Alipur village.

By the time a team from the forest department arrived at 11.30am, the elephants had damaged acres of crop. “We tried our best but could not save our crops. Around 10 bighas of my boro paddy were damaged by the elephants,” Ali said.

A crowd in the area

Villagers said the forest team reached very late and the delay ruined much of the crop. It took five hours for the team to send the animals towards Sonamukhi forest.

Binod Ghosh, a district committee member of the CPM’s Krishak Sabha, said: “Hundreds of villagers from various villages had to come out and break the norms as saving the crop was more important for them. We had requested people to avoid mass gatherings but it couldn’t be prevented as the crop is crucial for their survival.”

Forest officials said elephants from Sonamukhi forest usually strayed into the locality when crops flower and paddy ripens.

“We have no control on the movement of animals other than driving them into their own periphery. We did it but it resulted in loss of crops as usual,” said a forest official in East Burdwan.

Forest officials said they had tried to disperse the people. “People had come out in groups but we tried our best to stop them from gathering,” said Debashish Sharma, the divisional forest officer of East Burdwan.

Sharma said the farmers would be compensated after an assessment of crop loss.