Elephant Menace Dominates Election Concerns for Voters in Nepal's Jhapa-1 Constituency

Jhapa. As the election nears, Sabita Puri of Tirhing, Mechinagar-1, is busy harvesting her mature mustard crop. She chose mustard as an alternative crop because elephants destroy other crops. According to her, mustard is now flourishing more on the village hillsides than grains because elephants do not eat it.

Not just Tirhing, which borders India, but the entire Bahundangi area spanning Mechinagar-1, 2, 3, and 4 shares the same concern and question that has persisted for four decades: 'How to protect life and crops from wild elephants?' For the residents here, who have suffered from the inability to protect food crops, fruits, and vegetables, mustard cultivation has become a viable alternative farming method safe from elephants.