Wild elephant attack: Stop excuses, act instead

ShayLeventis

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posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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MYSORE: The wild elephant attack that created a warlike situation in Mysore city and caused the death of one person, has kept the ..

MYSORE: The wild elephant attack that created a warlike situation in Mysore city and caused the death of one person, has kept the district administration on its toes as it exposed the effect of degradation of forest land, increased traffic and human habitation in the elephant corridors.
The incident has proved that nothing concrete has been done to improve the forest area, put up solar fencing, dig scientific trenches and check mushrooming of resorts to avoid human habitation.The sixhour operation to trap the calf elephant has revealed the inefficacy of the government and administration in handling the crisis. The lack of experts and tranquilliser stock only proves this.

With increasing population of elephants in BR Hills, Bandipur and Nagarhole National Park areas, mananimal conflicts also have increased. Crops are destroyed and sometimes farmers in the fringe of the forest are killed.

But no attempt has been made to take back the 10,000 hectares of forest land sanctioned for cultivation in 1962. Most of these lands belonged to the elephant corridor in Punajanur, Loknahalli, Shivanasamudra forest ranges in Mysore, Chamrajnagar and Mandya districts.

Negligence to check mananimal conflict would only lead to a tragic end.