Assam has a new breed of invaders from Bangladesh to deal with.

Decades after grappling with a sea of illegal migrants from Bangladesh, New Delhi undertook an expensive project to fence the 4,095 km border with the neighbouring country.

The barbed-wire fence, though not foolproof, has checked the influx of humans to some extent. But it has not been able to stand the jumbo test, more so in southern Assam.

Herds of Bangladeshi elephants have nonchalantly been sneaking into southern Assams Karimganj district over the past few days. Other than raiding paddy fields, these elephants have been causing havoc in a 35 sq km area that has a couple of tea estates.

A herd of seven elephants crossed the border three weeks ago, said Y. Suryanarayan, southern Assams conservator of forests. We are trying to apply a technique used in Malaysia and Thailand to drive the elephants back.

The technique entails equipping villagers with bamboo torches. Forest officials said they would approach the district authorities for providing free kerosene to the villagers to keep their bamboo torches burning.

It seems Bangladeshi nationals aren't the only ones who sneak across the porous border. The illegal cargo includes these massive animals too, said a senior administrative officer of the district after visiting the affected areas on Friday.

The senior officer confirmed that the foreigner elephants destroyed at least 45 houses in two tea plantations Pathini and Medhli near the Indo-Bangladesh border. More houses and crops were damaged in four villages nearby.

The elephants also flattened a temple of Goddess Kali within the Medhli Tea Estate.

HOME TO 2000 JUMBOS

Assam is home to an estimated 7,000 Asiatic elephants, some 2,000 of which are domesticated in keeping with an age-old tradition. But habitat loss owing primarily to unchecked human settlements on jumbo corridors has led to frequent man-elephant conflicts claiming at least 200 elephants and 300 humans in the past 10 years.