Jamshedpur, Sept. 5: Fearing Naxalite attacks, foresters have decided to abandon their watchtowers set up to monitor elephant herds that usually migrate to the jungles of neighbouring Orissa and Bengal during this time of the year.

After the monsoon, herds of wild elephants from the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary move out to the Saranda forests of Jharkhand, Simplipal in Orissa’s Mayurbhanj district and West Midnapore in Bengal.

According to forest department sources, usually two herds of 20 tuskers each move to Bengal. But the route the elephants take from the Dalma hills to Bengal is within the Maoists’ terror zone.

The herds usually pass through Patamda, Kudlum, Beko, Rajabasa, Basodera, Kelajore, Tikri and Burudih — all under the Dhalbhum forest division — before finally entering East Midnapore.

The forest department with the active participation of local villagers had set up as many as 40 watchtowers of saal wood to monitor the migration and ensure that the elephants did not stray into the villages endangering lives or trample standing crops.

Divisional forest officer, Dhalbhum, A.T. Mishra said last year one person was killed by a herd of wild elephants, but the volume of crop loss was heavy.

“The towers are set up keeping in mind the stretches of plantations and the idea is to ward off a herd if it got too close,” said a source. While on watch, foresters keep a ready stock of crackers and torches which they use to scare away the elephants.

But this time, given the escalation in Maoist violence in the area, neither the villagers nor forest officials are keen on using the watchtowers. “Earlier, we would use the watchtowers regularly. But now it has become a matter of great risk,” pointed out Pradhan Hembram, a villager in Burudih.

Mishra said his department had already begun talking to local villagers to counsel them about precautions to take during elephant migration that was about to start.

“But we aren’t sure how effective our talks will be as the situation around the migratory route has changed completely,” he said.

His colleagues, however, admitted privately that no department official would use the watchtowers as it had become too dangerous.