India, May 5 -- Kinkar Kundu, a 60-year-old farmer from Saragara, a remote village in West Bengal's Bankura district, had to build his house thrice in the last ten years after it was damaged by raiding elephant herds at night. He used to suffer heavy losses as the elephants raided his paddy fields which in turn destroyed his crops several times.

"Once my family had a lucky escape. It was well past midnight, and we were all sleeping. I woke up to some noise and saw the trunk of an elephant entering my hut through a gaping hole the elephant had made in the mud wall. I soon alerted my family, and we rushed out. The elephant while pulling out its trunk damaged the entire wall and a portion of the hut collapsed," Kundu said.

But over the pas...