Fragmented forest patches leading to man-animal conflict, govt should address issue: Forest officers

Requesting anonymity, a senior forest officer in the task force said, “There are people on the ground to control and chase the elephants from human habitats. On receiving complaints from villagers, we reach in time because we have vehicles. However, the root cause of man-animal conflict is that elephants have lost their habitats and they stray into human habitats. It is like a cat and mouse story. If we chase elephants from one region they might appear tomorrow in some other village. How does it solve the problem? Several forest lands in the Western Ghats have been encroached. The spillover of the elephant population and the lost forest patches is a major concern.”

“Since 1954, Hassan district has lost forest patches due to the construction of the Hemavathi and Yagati dams. Areas of the reserve forest had to be chopped off to rehabilitate the villagers who lost their lands due to the dams. Then politicians and revenue officials illegally granted several patches of forest lands in Hassan district. The elephants which lost their habitats then strayed into the human habits,” another forest official from Hassan district, who is a part of the task force, said.

He added, “Moreover, chasing elephants is in complete violation of the Wildlife Protection Act. We have not been given any standing direction by the principal chief conservator of forest, Karnataka, to drive away elephants. The task force was formed by the state government and we are adhering to the norms.”

In order to contain the rising instances of man-elephant conflict, the Karnataka government on November 21 had constituted an elephant task force in four districts — Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Mysuru and Kodagu.

The newly constituted task force has been tasked to patrol in the jumbo-infested areas, monitor movement of elephants in human habitations, agriculture fields and coffee estates, and drive them back into forests under the direction of the deputy conservator of forests of the districts.

The task force is mandated to also create awareness among the people not to move in the forest areas. Each district where the task force was formed has been provided with jeeps to reach the jumbo-infested areas immediately.

Wildlife conservationist Joseph Hoover demanded the reconstitution of the task force and stated that only those who have prior experience in working in wildlife areas should be inducted.

Narrating an incident he said, “On February 25 this year, three forest staff could have drowned in the Kalasa river had a good Samaritan, Wilson, not saved them. Concerned that five transient elephants would enter Kalasa town, the task force team envisaged driving the tuskers back into the forest. But as some farmers burst crackers to drive the pachyderm away from their agricultural fields, the elephants turned tail, catching the trailing forest staff off-guard.”

Hoover added, “Fearing that they would be trampled, Umesh, Gajendra and Ravi Naik from the forest department jumped into the river, while others escaped into an adjacent farmland. This incident should compel the government and the chief wildlife warden to immediately reconstitute the ‘Elephant Task Force’. We had expressed our concern when the task force was formed, requesting Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to consider only those personnel who have had prior experience of working in wildlife habitats. But to no avail.”