The deaths of four persons in elephant attacks in less than a month at Naxalbari block of Siliguri subdivision have prompted the state forest department to beef up vigil and prevent human-animal conflict.

Currently, a herd of around 100 elephants is wandering in the forests of the block across four forest ranges, namely, Bagdogra, Panighata, Bamanpokhri and Tukuriajhar.

“Our teams are keeping a close watch on the area to prevent elephants from straying into localities. Also, we are using public address systems, asking people to stay safe and stop venturing out in the early morning hours unless it is an emergency. People have been also told not to go to adjacent areas of forests to answer nature’s call,” said Devesh Pandey, the divisional forest officer of the Kurseong forest division.

“We have also installed some CCTV cameras to monitor elephant movements. We have identified 30 more locations where CCTVs would be installed to bring more areas under round-the-clock digital surveillance,” he added.

The Naxalbari block and adjoining areas are parts of the elephant corridor in north Bengal that stretches from the Mechi river on the India-Nepal border (around 45 kilometres from here) to the Sankosh river at the Bengal-Assam border in Alipurduar district.

“Eight quick response teams (QRTs) have been engaged to handle the situation. There is a plan to increase the number of QRTs,” added a forester.

On October 30, a wild elephant killed an army personnel near Bengdubi.

The second incident happened on November 13 at the Asian Highway-II near Kestopur when two brothers got killed by an elephant.

The third incident occurred at Damdama, a hamlet adjacent to Asian Highway-II on Monday, when a lone tusker killed a villager, who went to answer nature’s call early in the morning.

Arun Ghosh, the sabhadhipati of Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad, has also engaged elected representatives of the rural bodies in their respective areas to conduct awareness drives and ask people to stop moving out late at night or early in the morning so as not to encounter wild elephants.

“The rural areas under Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad are ODF (open-defecation-free) areas. Still, a section of people move into the forests to answer nature’s call. I have asked the panchayat members and others to ask villagers to abstain from this practice to prevent such mishaps,” said Ghosh.