Forest officials inspecting affected fields at Philimi village on August 18.
Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 18
Following report published in this newspaper on August 17 regarding recent damage of fields by wild elephants at Philimi village under Zunheboto district, the office of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) & Head of Forest Force, Nagaland acted promptly and deputed four staff to the affected site to assess the damage caused.
The four staff reached Philimi village on August 17 evening and halted the night there and visited the affected fields on August 18 accompanied by village leaders and farmers.
When contacted, Wildlife Warden, Dimapur Wildlife Division, Tokaho Kinimi, IFS informed that four staff were deputed to assess the perimeter of the entire damaged area. He said paddy fields and other agricultural crops were trampled by the elephants besides damaging around 8-9 hutments. He said the damage happened while elephants from Doyang dam side were migrating in search of food.
“It is not clear how many elephants were there but those are resident elephants having no corridors to Assam and they keep on moving from place to place in search of food,” he said.
Tokaho said that the Philimi Village Council has been helpful to the visiting forest staff. He informed that the department is looking into the grievances of the affected farmers and would extend all possible help.
It was learnt that entire details of the damage caused is yet to be prepared.
According to Philimi Village Council Chairman, Hoito, the visiting officials assured of early compensation to the affected farmers after completing necessary formalities. He thanked the visiting officials and PCCF for their concern towards the affected village. Hoito also thanked Agriculture Production Commissioner, Y Kikheto Sema, IAS for facilitating the damage assessment by forest officials through his intervention and communication with the PCCF and other concerned officials.
Meanwhile, Kikheto also wrote to the PCCF & HFF, Dharmendra Prakash on August 17 highlighting about the incident and requested him to depute staff to assess the damage and to look into possible assistance to the affected farmers.
As reported earlier, this is for the third consecutive year that wild elephants have been damaging fields at Philimi village and the farmers stated that no assistance came forward from the government side despite reporting the matter to the authorities on earlier occasions.
