Chittoor bears the brunt as jumbo population up in T.N., Karnataka
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The foresters in Chittoor district had been elated when the Asiatic elephants reappeared in the Kuppam area in the early Eighties, after a hiatus of a century. By 1990, the Koundinya wildlife sanctuary spreading over about 1 lakh acres of foersts in Palamaner, Kuppam and Chittoor west ranges, flanked by Tamil Nadu and Karnatakawas was prepared for the pachyderms.
Man-animal battle
The variety of elephants which stood in single digit 4 a long time in the past has now elevated to greater than 100, together with these in the Koundinya sanctuary. Now, the elephant menace has turn out to be a priority for the foresters and the farmers as the animals continuously enterprise into agriculture lands and injury crops, resulting in man-animal battle. Nine elephants died of electrocution in 2019-20 monetary yr and half a dozen of individuals died throughout the identical interval. Many villagers had been injured in jumbo assaults.
Even as the forest officers have dug elephant-proof trenches, erected photo voltaic fencing and put in rock pillars to stop elephants from straying into human habitations, none of those measures have confirmed to be satisfactory to include the menace.
Radio-collar mission
Between 2016 and 2018, round ₹40 crore was spent on trenches and erecting fences to cowl the porous inter-State borders. The Forest Department additionally mooted a radio-collar mission for stray elephants at a value of ₹50 lakh, but it surely was shelved on account of technical causes.
What worries the forest officers in Chittoor district is that the forest ranges which have a sound elephant population are poorly staffed, whereas a giant chunk of the obtainable employees are on the verge of their retirement. The operations to drive away the stray elephants into the forests in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka want at the least a dozen of elephant-trackers and watchers.
The officers say that the elephjants proceed to outsmart them, including that it’s unattainable to observe the forest stretch over 100 kilometers with the obtainable employees energy.
Frequent crop raids
The tri-State junction has been witnessing frequent crop raids by elephants from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, which have a pachyderm population of greater than 7,000, the officers say.
Even as a number of plans made to carry conferences of the forest officers of the three States to deal with the inter-State drawback, no tangible outcomes might be seen as of now.
In January this yr, three elephants from Tamil Nadu ventured into the plain areas of Nagari and Puttur after passing by a number of ranges overlaying over 170 km. Three months have handed, the officers are but to attract an motion plan to deal with the group and stop the crop raids.
“One of the major reason for the elephant meance in Chittoor district is the rising the population of the animals in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The herds continue to move from Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu into the the tri-State junction area in Chittoor in search of food, water and new territory. We are exploring all possibilities to tackle the inter-State problem,” Divisional Forest Officer (Chittoor West) S. Ravi Shankar advised The Puucho.
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