Threat to voters, unlike in other northeastern states, is not from any insurgent groups but from a wild herd of rampaging elephants! The elephant-infested areas are part of former Lok Sabha Speaker and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Purno Agitok Sangma's Tura constituency. At least 30 polling stations in the three Garo Hill districts of the state have been declared "sensitive" by the authorities. But security reinforcements there are in the form of local tribals carrying drums and cymbals as well as draught elephants, kept ready to meet any eventuality.

"Wild elephants can pose a threat to voters and poll officials in certain areas during the elections with herds coming down from the hillsin search of food and local brew," ND Sangma, the additional district magistrate in charge of the elections in Tura, told India Abroad News Service.

"We have at least 30 polling stations where the threat from elephants is high and hence we have declared those centres as sensitive." The state election department has requisitioned a few draught elephants from the forest and wildlife authorities, besides seeking the help of local tribespeople to scare away the marauding pachyderms by beating drums, cymbals and bursting firecrackers.

"The local people are quite used to chasing away wild elephants in their traditional way and we don't think there should be any problems during polling day because of the tuskers," KK Sangma, the secretary of the local unit of the NCP, said.

The district administration will also be deploying additional security personnel in the vulnerable polling stations. "All measures, both traditional and modern, have been chalked out properly," the magistrate said.

There are an estimated1,500 wild elephants in the Garo Hills out of a total population of nearly 6,000 pachyderms in the entire northeastern region. The authorities have also advised poll officials to take a circuitous route to reach certain polling stations with local tribespeople reporting that a few elephants had recently given birth to some calves close to village tracks.

"Immediately after giving birth, the mother elephants get very agitated at the sight of human beings and so we have decided to go by other routes to reach some booths," an election official said. But the most prominent candidate in the constituency seems unfazed by the mammoth `security threat'.

"The elephants have a very strong sense and they can distinguish between good and evil. So I'm sure they will not do any harm to me and my supporters," Purno Sangma quipped while speaking to IANS.

India Abroad News Service