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Thirst drives animals to violence in Bundelkhand

The human-animal conflict increases in the border area between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for want of water

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The human-animal conflict increases in the border area between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for want of water

LUCKNOW: Village Aari. Jaitpur block in Bundelkhand on the UP-MP border. Time: 1.30 pm. A group of monkeys from the nearby forest area barge into villagers’ hovels.

They do not attack anyone, and they are not looking for fruits or any other eatables. They just drink water to their hearts’ content, and leave.

Village Bhatipura. District Mahoba. Time: 3 pm. A middle-aged woman Geeta is returning from the village well with an earthen pot full of water. She is attacked by a donkey. As she runs for her life, the donkey takes leisurely gulps of water from the pot. Geeta was later admitted to the Jhansi district hospital.

Village Baghaura. District Mahoba. Time: 5.30 pm. A hyena attacks a child drinking water outside his house. The hyena leaves only after quenching its thirst from a pot of water lying nearby.

These are just some of the incidents being reported from the parched Bundelkhand on the UP-MP border. As the mercury rises, the frequency of such attacks is increasing. Officials are noting with alarm even domesticated animals that are attacking human beings for water in this region which faces a severe drought due to deficient rainfall for the past five years.

“Animals are giving the clear signal that you are ignoring us,” says renowned wildlife expert and former chief wildlife warden of UP Ram Lakhan Singh. “The human-animal conflict will increase if immediate steps are not taken to provide enough water for the animals within forest limits,” he told DNA.

The violent behaviour of the animals in the area is being seen as abnormal and unprecedented. A forest department official told DNA that the administration has miserably failed to ensure adequate water supply for all living beings.

Thereby hangs another tale. While the animals virtually go berserk with thirst, district and forest department officials quibble over who should provide water for the mute inhabitants of the woods.

Mahoba DM Anita Chatterjee dismisses the attacks as “media hype”. Asked by DNA about the attack by the monkeys, she said: “Monkeys have a slightly destructive nature. They have a tendency of being rowdy.” However, she admits later that this is the first time in her three-month tenure here that she had heard of such attacks.

“There is definitely shortage of water but we have provided water for animals near handpumps. We are also getting old wells cleaned, and well-blasting has already been done at 250 places,” she says.

However, such efforts can hardly make up for the huge number of ponds and other natural bodies which have gone dry all over the largely barren and backward Bundelkhand. They can be filled up only when it rains.

At present, says Ram Lakhan Singh, the carnivores have “colonised” whatever water resources are left in the jungle. He sounds an ominous warning: “The situation would spin out of control once these also go dry, and carnivores like leopards, wolves and hyenas venture out of the forest in search of water.”

As a senior forest official laments: “The problem with government planning is that everything is targeted at human beings while animals figure nowhere the in relief work, perhaps because they cannot vote.”

g_deepak@dnaindia.net

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