Agartala: A group of tribal villagers on Monday blocked the National Highway 8 at Mungiakami in West Tripura district for nearly five hours demanding protection from frequent wild elephant attacks.
During the last one year, there have been frequent wild elephant attacks in the locality. The road blockade was supported by TIPRA Motha, the largest opposition party in Tripura.
The tribal villagers started the National Highway blockade at 9 AM and it continued till 2 PM. The sub divisional magistrate visited the spot and only after the district magistrate assured the people of all possible help, the blockade was lifted.
There have been incidents of more than two-dozen attacks by wild elephant during the last one year in the area, the villagers claimed.
Most of these incidents went unreported as they are mostly elephants straying into rubber plantation, and paddy fields. But, there have been deaths in a few cases as well.
“We want the government to protect us from wild animal attacks in future,” one of the villagers told Northeast News.
The tribal villagers accused the state forest officials of not taking adequate steps to bring down the incidents of human-elephant conflicts in the area.
The tribal population in the area who are traditional forest dwellers, and are yet to get any designated plots by the state Forest Department, one of the villagers said.
