Dibrugarh: Hundreds of Amguri villagers protested outside the Doomdooma Forest Division office on Tuesday over recurring wild elephant incursions.The protesters, from the Philobari area of Tinsukia district, accused the forest department of failing to prevent elephant herds from entering villages almost nightly and damaging homes, crops, tea gardens, and areca nut and banana plantations.“This has become unbearable. We cannot sleep peacefully anymore because we don’t know when the elephants will come and destroy everything we’ve worked for,” protester Bidyut Saikia said.Villagers said repeated complaints to forest officials failed to yield a lasting solution. They also alleged that compensation for damaged crops and homes was either delayed or not paid, worsening their financial distress.“We have lost our crops again and again, yet the compensation promised to us never comes on time, if at all. Our patience is running out,” another villager said, warning of intensified protests if their demands remained unaddressed.The protesters demanded immediate measures to stop elephants from entering settlements, timely compensation and a long-term plan to mitigate human-elephant conflict.The protest followed several incidents of human-elephant conflict in the district. In July, 62-year-old Sanju Orang was trampled to death by a lone elephant outside her home in Dhola-Saikhowa. Forest officials said the solitary male strayed from Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.Days earlier, a female elephant was found dead in a paddy field at Balijan village. Illegal electric fencing installed to protect crops was suspected to be the cause of death.
