Senior officials step in to persuade forest dwellers to take Covid-19 vaccine

ON FRIDAY, THE LOCALS, REFUSED TO GET VACCINATED

LATEHAR: A team of senior officials went to Kujrum, a village situated in core area of Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) to persuade locals to take Covid-19 vaccine a day after they refused to do so, officials said Saturday.

The locals, mostly tribal and members of primitive tribes, refused to get vaccinated when a health department vaccination team reached there on Friday. Nobody among the few locals whom the vaccination team met agreed to take the vaccine despite repeated requests by the paramedics. On the other hand, most of the villagers fled into nearby forests to wait for the team to return.

The team on their return to Baresanrh informed higher authorities about the incident.

Taking serious note of the reluctance of inhabitants of the forest, the district administration formed a team of senior officials of civil and health officials to visit the village and make them aware about the importance of vaccination in defeating the raging pandemic. The forest officials were also asked to accompany the team to the villages situated in densely forested core area of the state’s only tiger reserve.

Latehar deputy commissioner (DC) Abu Imran said, “We are reaching out to highly inaccessible areas. The local people should cooperate and get vaccinated to make district and state safe. We do not see any side effect of vaccination.”

“We are already carrying out mass awareness drive in the district to encourage people to take vaccines and it will continue till we achieve the cent-per-cent target,” the DC said.

The team spent nearly three hours in the village and could find only 20 villagers in the village on Friday.

“After much persuasion, only seven agreed to get vaccinated. A local forest tracker was among these vaccinated persons,” said ranger officer Elias Aaind.