On Monday, at least four elephants were found unconscious in a forest in Chhattisgarh's Surajpur district, prompting a frenzied scramble to save them. Officials believe it was the result of a combination of eating too much mahua and accidentally ingesting pesticides while searching for foodgrains.
Forest rangers are concerned about the health of three elephants, one of which is a calf. On Monday morning, villagers spotted elephants wobbling around and collapsing one by one in the jungles of Shivbahar in the Surajpur district. Three of the elephants, according to the forest authorities, are in critical condition. The officials informed the reporters that these 3 elephants were part of a herd of 30 elephants
That had ransacked the houses of locals in search of food. Yet another example of The loss of habitat that wild animals are facing along with lack of food. Immediately after being informed the Forest team started treating the animals for overdosing on mahua and food and pesticide poisoning.
A slight movement from one of the elephants was observed after a few hours of treatment. The other three elephants have yet to show any signs of improvement. This has also led the forest officials to take immediate action and conduct a blanket search of the area to see if there are other elephants that might be sick or worse have collapsed. The elephant herd has been wandering around the districts of Jashpur, Surajpur, and Koriya. During the day, elephants tend to stay in the forests, however, after dusk, they invade the villages in quest of food and grains.
This is not the first time that animals have actually invaded human settlements in search of food, in India it’s something that happens a lot and is due to the loss of habitats of these animals due to extensive human exploitation of forests to convert them into agricultural lands etc.
