Baripada: After four months of elephant menace which, stole the sleep of the night of residents in the Karanjia area of Mayurbhanj, the forest department today launched a new initiative to keep the jumbos away from villages.
As per the report, an expert team of forest officials which was called up from Khordha and engaged on the duty of driving away the jumbo herd hung packets of red chili powder and tobacco at different places in the forest where elephants were seen.
The officials believe the process will compel the pachyderms to leave the forest as they have a strong allergy to the smell of this preparation.
“Elephants could smell food from a distance of 20 km and water from a distance of 4 km but as far as red chili powder and tobacco is concerned they have a strong allergy to the preparation. The step would ultimately work on them,” informed Bipin Pradhan, a Zoological expert.
Notably, a herd of 22 elephants that had sneaked into the Karanjia area four months ago has so far destroyed a number of houses and caused significant damage to the standing crops.
Ms Kalinga