Jumbo problem a big poll issue in Bhubaneswar

Politicians go about promising safe drinking water, roads, electricity and healthcare at election time.

Politicians go about promising safe drinking water, roads, electricity and healthcare at election time. But the candidates campaigning in Chandaka, Andharua and Bharatpur villages of the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency are trying to convince voters on a single issue: that they will save them from the attacks of wild elephants.

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There has been a serious man-elephant crisis in this area for over a decade. In the last seven years, 24 villagers have died in elephant attacks. Often during the summer and winter seasons, elephant herds from the Chandaka Wildlife Sanctuary trespass into human habitations and cause serious damage to standing crops — and villagers too.

Congress’s Soumya Ranjan Patnaik is promising to divert a portion of the MPLAD fund for better metal fencing and trench-digging work around the sanctuary. BJD’s Prasanna Patsani has assured villagers that he would make "elephant trespassing" a big issue in Parliament.

For the five contestants, the need to convince people in the three villages is urgent: the nearly 17,000 voters constitute a major share of the electorate in the Jatni assembly segment.