2 jumbos ransack shop, destroy Puja ration meant for Dooars tea workers

Panic gripped the Bamandanga-Tondu tea estate in Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri district early on Tuesday after two wild elephants broke into a ration shop’s storage facility and destroyed several sacks of rice, flour, sugar and semolina.

The state government had supplied these items for distribution to beneficiaries ahead of Durga Puja.

A source said the elephants broke the shop’s shutter and consumed and trampled over the sacks of food grains and essential commodities, rendering them unusable.

The garden workers are uncertain whether they will get the ration again before the festivities, while the shop owner is struggling to arrange additional supplies.

Prem Agarwal, the ration shop owner, said this is the 70th time that elephants have damaged his ration shop’s storage facility.

“The elephants broke the shutter and destroyed sacks of sugar, flour, semolina, rice and wheat. The special ration meant for tea garden workers for Durga Puja has been ruined. There is no sugar, semolina or flour left. I do not know how I will distribute the ration to the workers before the festival,” Agarwal said.

The supplies, he said, reached his place last Sunday.

Bamandanga—Tondu, on the fringes of the Gorumara National Park and other patches of forests, is considered one of the areas most vulnerable to human-elephant conflict in Nagrakata block.

Apart from elephants, residents also face threats from leopards, gaur (bison), rhinos and wild boars.

Agarwal said he had installed additional protective measures, including barbed wire and small metal rods fitted to the shutter, to protect the ration shop and its storage facility from repeated jumbo attacks.

“However, even these measures failed to prevent the attack, with the elephants breaking through the shutter and leaving the storage facility severely damaged,” he added.