Elephant menace haunts Karnataka dist, people slam forest officials

Ramanagara (Karnataka): The people of Doddanahalli and surrounding areas in Karnataka's Ramanagara district were tense and slammed the forest officials for repeated elephant menace in the region.

A tusker walked into the agricultural land in Doddanahalli on Friday morning, triggering panic among the villagers. The tusker chased villagers when they tried to move it away. None of the villagers was harmed, but the people were scared and ran helter-skelter, said eyewitnesses.

Locals said that the elephant had strayed into the village from the Tenginakallu Forest Area. Ramnagar district is the neighbouring district of Bengaluru and people slam the government for not giving solution to the elephant menace.

The villagers are scared to go to their farms during nights and carry out the work during daylight due to the fear of elephants. The people of Channapatna taluk have been putting up with the elephant menace for a long time, say locals.

Forest officers rushed to the spot and the exercise of forcing the tusker towards the forest area was on. The losses to the farmland caused by tusker was yet to be assessed.