Elephant damages Haridwar SSP’s office wall

HARIDWAR: An elephant on Friday morning damaged a boundary wall and uprooted trees at senior superintendent of police office at Roshanabad, 14 km from Haridwar town, as elephant movement in residential areas has increased suddenly in Haridwar district with the onset of winter.

On daily basis for the past one week, elephants as well as other wild animals such as leopard have been spotted in residential habitats.

On Friday, the elephant damaged 2.5 metre of the boundary wall and activity of the elephant was captured in the CCTV camera installed at the SSP office building. Being informed on the incident forest officials shooed away the elephant to a nearby forest terrain of Rajaji Tiger Reserve.

Senior Superintendent of Haridwar Police Yogendra Singh Rawat also took stock of the situation and directed officials to adopt safety measures in wake of the increasing intrusion of wild animals.

Haridwar Forest Ranger Dinesh Naudiyal said patrolling teams were on alert and monitoring the situation.

At Bishanpur Kundi, Purani

Kundi, Majra and Pathri villages, farmers also reported elephants damaging their sugarcane crops in agricultural fields.

Villagers said elephants were arriving at their agricultural fields in search of sugarcane crops to eat, thereby causing major damage to the crops.

“We demand from the state government to provide compensation to affected farmers. As for the past several days elephants are coming to the fields, from Ganga area opposite side our village , on regular basis which is also leading to fear among local people,” said Sushil Saini, a resident of Pathri village.