A special restaurant dedicated to wild elephants was opened today in Hatikhuli Ronghag village along the Nagaon-Karbi Anglong border in Assam. The restaurant caters to the elephants' favourite eatables.
The initiative was taken up by an NGO called 'Hati Bondhu' under the patronage of Pradeep Bhuyan, based out of Guwahati, Assam along with two nature-loving youths from Chapalana, Binod Dulu Bora and Meghna Mayur Hazarika. They have been cultivating paddy along with broom and Napier grass, also known as elephant grass in the 200 'bighas' of land.
Notably, the initiative was started three years ago by Pradeep Bhuyan, director of 'Hati Bondhu', aided by the Assam's forest and agriculture departments and the locals. The scene of elephants relishing the cultivated items was captured on camera.
The area was opened for the elephants to eat from after a small ceremonial puja. Villagers of Hatikhuli Ronghang worshipped Lord Ganesha today. They expressed their gratitude towards 'Hati Bondhu' for their three-year-long efforts to cultivate the land for elephants to feed.
It is worth mentioning that the decision to cultivate the land for wild elephants to feed in order to have enough fodder in place for the elephants and curb human-elephant conflict in the region. Earlier elephants often used to come down and raid the villages causing menace for the predominantly farming population.
The farmers in the region have since been able to continue farming their lands without fear of elephant raids. There has also been a reported drop in elephant-human conflicts in the Nagaon-Karbi Anglong border area.