Railing no bar for unstoppable jumbo

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: When a jumbo is on the rampage, there is nothing which can stop it, not even iron railings. The forest department is learning this the hard way after spending crores of rupees on putting up old iron railings to prevent wild elephants from raiding human habitats, especially in villages which are situated on the fringes of forests.

The jumbos usually go in search of crops grown by farmers in nearby forests and this happened in a village adjacent to Bandipur National Park when a wild tusker easily climbed over the railing and entered a human settlement. The one minute video of the jumbo crossing the railing has gone viral in social media which shows how intelligent the giant animal is. The pachyderm is heavily built but it can be seen climbing over the railing effortlessly like an athlete crossing the hurdles in a race, carefully balancing its bulky body.

In the past, several elephants have died while climbing over railings or trying to move below them in Bandipur and Nagarhole National Parks. A few of them have been saved by the forest department following information provided by the local population.

The decision to put up the iron railings was taken by the state government after the experiment succeeded in South Africa. The project cost the state exchequer Rs 200 crore and now the government will have to think of another plan to check the wild jumbos.