Wild elephant attack creates fear psychosis in coastal town

Mangaluru: In the worst case of animal-human conflict ever in the Dakshina Kannada district, two villagers were gored to death by a wild elephant in the wee hours of Monday. The dead were identified as Ranjita (25) and Ramesh Rai (58) of Renjiladi village in Kadaba taluk.

Following the incident, the villagers gathered in the centre of town and wanted the top officials of the district must immediately come to the spot and arrange for relief. They also summoned the top forest officials to the spot. Both the Deputy Commissioner Mr Ravi Kumar and the Conservator of Forests Karikalan rushed to the spot with other officials and arranged for the bodies to be handed over to their respective families.

Ravikumar announced a relief of Rs. 15 lakhs to each of the victims of the elephant attack. The relief was handed over to the families before the mid-afternoon. The Dakshina Kannada Milk Union president Sucharita Shetty has also promised to help the family monetarily and the local MLA has also promised help to the family.

The stretch between Kutrapady Renjilady, and Nekkilady and transcend into Wayanad in Kerala come under the second elephant corridor in the western ghats. The first one is between Alur in Hassan district and Brahmagiri in Kodagu Dakshina Kannada districts.

The Forest department using the High Court directions of 2011, used either of the options to reduce the HEC in these three districts. areas the officials from wildlife division of the Forest department have rushed to the problematic areas in

Sullia, Balele and Pushpagiri area is one of the largest elephant corridors in the country. The Forest Department wildlife officials have started gathering every bit of information on Asian elephants' behaviour, their group management, habitat studies and methods to lead them into the next available space of natural habitat. However, the experts have opined that the elephants cannot be just captured and trans-located elsewhere and run the risk of confrontation with humans there and also stand to get into a fight with the resident herd there.

According to forest officials, many patches on the elephant corridor have been lost to the elephants due to the expansion of human habitation, and the natural habitats of elephants have given way to the agricultural and horticultural pastures, According to the committee constituted in 2011 following the High Court order it has identified a stock of 45 wild elephants in the region prone to confrontation with humans. The stock of elephants on this corridor has now swollen to an estimated 65 elephants.

'The government was making efforts to either capture or translocate the elephants, and officials said that they could come back to the same patch of the forest even if they are translocated 100 kilometres away. We are also studying the possibility of letting them free in their natural habitats, but there was a danger that they might be hurt or even killed if the local elephants did not accept them' said an official. Experts in the wildlife conservation field have opined that the acceptance level of the animals among the resident stock should be tested before translocation. Individual animals belonging to the same family should be let free after being radio-collared and monitored for behaviour on a day-to-day basis for consistency of movement, which signals that the local herd has accepted them. The Forest Department officials in Dubare, Chamarajanagar, Hunsur, and Sakrebail in Shimoga have indicated that their camps were full of animals, and it might prove difficult to accommodate more animals in the case of more captures and translocations.