A herd of wild elephant numbering around 30-35 reportedly wandered inside the farmland area at Haili, some 7km away from Mekokla village under Wokha district, and rampaged rubber and sugarcane plantation on the intervening night of December 25 and December 26, 2018.
In a press release, Mekokla village council (MVC) chairman Nyamo Z Yanthan said wild elephants also caused damage to farm houses and properties belonging to more than 25 farmers of Mekokla village. However, MVC said loss of lives was averted as most of the farmers were away in the village for Christmas.
According to MVC, similar incident took place earlier also and the matter was reported to the district administration to initiate remedial measures. However, MVC said so far the responsible department seemed not serious about the matter.
MVC has, therefore, urged upon the district administration and the department of forest to activate wildlife controlling machineries and initiate remedial measure. The council also appealed to the responsible department to depute departmental officials to the village at the earliest and assist the damages and grant adequate compensation to the innocent farmers for the damages of plantation, farm house and properties.