Jhapa, Jan 9: Sangita Niraula, 42, of Mechinagar-11 in Jhapa was in a deep sleep when a herd of wild elephants strayed into the village and started running amok destroying houses and grains. She woke up after hearing the villagers shouting loudly ‘Elephants have attacked the house, run away, run away’, leading her blind husband Meghnath out of their bedroom. Before they could escape, the Niraula couple were attacked by a wild elephant.
The elephant wrapped both of them with its trunk and threw them away. The couple fell on the ground and fainted. After the elephant walked away, the villagers took the couple to nearby Mechi Amda Hospital for treatment.
“We were about to run away in panic. But an elephant was standing in front of us attacked us,” says Sangita recalling the incident two weeks ago, “I remember that the elephant grabbed us with its trunks. Thereafter we regained consciousness only at Amda Hospital.”
Sangita’s waist and spine have been affected, and the ligaments of both legs have been torn, the doctors said. Meghnath has an internal injury on his leg.
The Niraula couple, who survived the elephant attack, say they had to get treatment after seeking a loan.
Without money, she says she had to pay Rs 26,000 for the hospital bills after taking loan from villagers. Having no land in their name, they have leased a plot belonging a school in Jhapa for living.
They are living in a two-room house with corrugated zinc sheet roofing. Meghnath cannot see with both eyes. Without income sources, Sangita is supporting the family by selling chatpata in the nearby Kalika wetlands tourist area.
After receiving treatment at Mechi Amda Hospital in Dhulabari and Omsai Pathibhara Hospital in Bhadrapur, the Niraula couple are now taking medicine at home. The couple cannot afford to stay in the hospital defying the doctor’s advice fearing the bill can increase. So, they are now staying at home.
She says she is finding it difficult to make ends meet as she cannot go to sell Chatpata because she cannot walk.
Other injured people in the elephant attack share the similar problem as they are dealing with difficulties to pay the hospital bills without money.
The government has asked the victims to get treatment only at the government health institutions. But they are not satisfied with it reasoning that they have to face many hurdles in availing treatment at the government hospitals.
On November 5, 2023, Gopal Rijal of Bahundangi in Mechinagar-2 was seriously injured when a wild elephant attacked him while collecting fodder. He got his 10 chest ribs broken and blood clotted in his lungs.
After getting treatment at B&C Hospital in Birtamod for a month and a half, he was able to sit in a wheelchair and was recently discharged. He spent Rs 2.2 million on his treatment. With weak financial conditions, he did not have the ability to pay for the treatment.
The hard earned money by his two brothers working in a foreign land was spent on his treatment, said his neighbour Kalyan Kafle. The money was meant for building a house for themselves.
“Villagers collected around Rs 300,000 as donation. A large amount of money was borrowed from his relatives and neighbours as the money earned by his brothers was not enough,” he said.
The two brothers have been left high and dry as all the wealth they earned abroad was spent on his treatment, he shared.
He has not received any assistance from any governmental agency, complains Rijal.
Four people were killed and three others injured in elephant attacks in Jhapa in the past two months. The government provides Rs 1 million to each family of those killed in an elephant attack and covers medical expenses ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 200,000 depending on the situation of the injured, said Meghraj Rai, chief of the Division Forest Office, Jhapa.
The process of getting the money for the treatment of the people injured in wild animal attacks is cumbersome, complained the victims. According to the rule that the injured should be treated at a government hospital in order to get the treatment expenses. But the victims get the money only after a long time after submitting the application along with the hospital bill. The government also bears the loss of crops.
The victim should submit an application alongside the treatment bill to the division forest office within 35 days, said Rai. The government also bears the loss of crops.
The victims especially financially weak ones cannot treatment on time as the process to get the treatment provided by the government is lengthy and cumbersome, said Kafle of elephant-affected Mechinagar-2. He opines that there should be arrangements for the distribution of relief funds from the local municipality to provide treatment and assistance to the elephant victims as soon as possible.
