A rampaging herd of 200 wild elephants that has wreaked havoc in eastern Nepal after migrating from India is poised to trigger a diplomatic row between the two countries.
Two of the elephants have been killed in the past week by irate villagers after the herd destroyed about 200 houses, local reports said.
“There is tension in the area with the villagers threatening police and forest officials,” Santosh Nepal of the World Wildlife Fund, said.
A Nepalese official said: “The villagers think the animals are deliberately pushed into Nepal by the Indian authorities and are simmering with anger and resentment.” With the Brahmaputra plains in the northern Indian state of Assam becoming flooded in the annual monsoon, the herd had crossed the open border between India and Nepal, entering the country’s Jhapa district.
Conservationists are calling for India and Nepal to discuss a compensation programme for the affected villages, to which both countries would contribute. They have suggested that such a scheme would help protect the elephants.
However, recent political unrest in Nepal is said to have stymied such efforts.
Nepal's peace process has been stalled since May when the country's Maoists resigned from a coalition government they were heading amid a row over their plans to sack the country's army chief.
Rhys Blakely in Mumbai
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6706719.ece
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