To curb man-elephant conflict, CG village shuts road and locals go under lockdown

Raipur: As dusk sets in over Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district, roads that take workers to markets and children to school fall deathly silent within the limits of barriers that go down at 4 pm. Vehicles vanish and villagers pick their way home on foot under the shadows of more than 40 wild elephants on the move. In an attempt to curb human-elephant conflict, the state forest department has shut vehicle movement on Tapkara forest range, a 10-km stretch passing through the Satpuriya jungle, after a rampant movement of elephant herd and a marauding lone tusker turned Jashpur's forest villages and highways into a ‘zone of concern'.The decision followed a particularly tense Saturday evening. Patebahal residents Bablu Nagvanshi and Rajkumar Nagvanshi were travelling with their families along the Satpuriya road to distribute condolence letters when the herd suddenly appeared. As the herd went after them, Bablu scrambled up a tree to save himself while Rajkumar turned and ran back towards the village.From his perch, Bablu called Rajkumar to say he was stuck in the middle of the forest with the marauding herd still around. A forest rescue team led by guard Nandkumar Yadav rushed to the spot and, after a careful operation, brought him down safely.With the sizeable elephant herd prowling the region over the last twenty days, and a series of close shaves reported, the forest department had to implement a four-prompt strategy, one of which was to seal the road with barriers, preventing the movement of locals for a while, Jashpur DFO Shashi Kumar told TOI. The DFO added, "Blocking the way is a temporary and preventive arrangement being done mainly on village routes, which are easily diverted, and the barrier is removed as and when elephants move to a different location. The four-prompt strategy has been impactful in Jashpur, as the district has recorded minimum incidents of human-elephant conflict in 2025 as compared to previous years."