Tusker menace: Prohibitory orders in Mudigere taluk

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Chikkamagaluru: Deputy Commissioner KN Ramesh has imposed a prohibitory order in several villages in Mudigere taluk in the wake of an ongoing operation to nab a lone wild tusker that has wreaked havoc in the entire taluk.

In a press release, he said the order will be in force in Halekeri, Gowdahalli, Hemmadi, Kumbaradi, Addagudda, Honnekoyal, Sattiganahalli, Bhyrapura, and other villages till the tusker was nabbed and relocated.

Around 100 Forest Department personnel with six tamed elephants and three veterinarians launched a major operation last week to trace, track and tranquilise the wild tusker. Already, three to four people have been killed by the tusker, and crops worth lakhs of rupees have been damaged.

Recently, Manu, a 45-year-old agricultural worker was trampled to death by a wild tusker in Hebbanahalli village while he was returning to the village after visiting a temple. The attack was so gory that the corpse had been cut into two pieces by the jumbo.

Close on the heels of this incident, the MLAs of the Malenadu region, cutting across the party lines had staged a dharna in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru, urging Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to end the menace of wild jumbos in Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, and Shivamogga region.

Excise Minister K.Gopalaiah, who called on the agitating legislators, promised to take necessary steps to contain the jumbo menace in the Malnad region. The people of Hassan and Chikkamagaluru have lost patience over the frequent deaths of people in the elephant attacks and demanded the government save their lives from the pachyderms. Meanwhile, the operation launched by the Forest Department to nab the dreaded lone tusker was yet to show results as the jumbo had stationed itself in the peak of a hillock that was unapproachable for the tamed elephants. So, they are waiting for the marauding elephant to come down so that it could be nabbed and sent to kraal for taming