National
Children terrorised by wild elephants
Children living near the buffer zone of Bardiya National Park (BNP) have been terrorised after a boy was killed by a wild elephant while returning home from school last month.Kamal Panthi
Children living near the buffer zone of Bardiya National Park (BNP) have been terrorised after a boy was killed by a wild elephant while returning home from school last month.
Following the incident, the BNP has arranged a school bus service for the children of Dalla, Pattharbojhi and Dandagaun villages. Still, the children do not feel safe travelling through forest road.
Nearly 50 children living close to the BNP buffer zone go to Tribhuvan Higher Secondary School at Suryapatuwa. Yubaraj Chaudhary, the boy who died in the elephant attack, was one of them.
“We are afraid to even travel on bus through the road. The death Yubaraj has affected us all,” said Jayaram Chaudhary, an eighth grader at the school.
Concerned parents have asked the BNP authority to set up electric fence to control elephant menace.
In the absence of electric fence, they said, the elephants have been wandering into villages, destroying their properties and attacking people.
Birbal Tharu of Dandagaun said wild elephants have been entering their village more frequently in the recent years.
“Our lives are in danger, so are our homes and crops. We have been urging the national park authority to install electric fence for years,” he said.
There are estimated 100 elephants inside BNP. And almost every year, they have been wreaking destruction in Dalla, Pattharbojhi, Dandagaun, Patabhar, Gola, Thakurdwar, Bagnaha, Neulapur and Dhadhawar villages.