A video shows hundreds of men descending upon a herd of elephants every time they move out of the forest patches in search of food.
A video shot by the NGO Sanctuary Nature Foundation shows hundreds of men descending upon the elephants nearly every time they move out of the forest patches in search of food. The men can be seen pelting stones, hurling abuses, and blocking the elephants’ path.
Trapped within slivers of forests amid a sea of dense human habitation in an area called Athgarh, the elephants are in constant state of conflict with the people living there. “This is why we call them giant refugees,” Aditya Chandra Panda, an Orissa-based wildlife conservationist said in a telephonic interview.