Two elephants electrocuted

Two elephants were electrocuted in separate incidents in the Nagarahole and Bandipur forest areas on Monday.

A 32-year-old male elephant was electrocuted by the roadside in the D B Kuppe wildlife zone of the Nagarahole National Park in the wee hours of Monday.

The jumbo suffered injuries in the neck after it came in contact with a 11-KV high tension power line, tethered to the ground, near the Balle camp on the Mysore-Mandavadi Road.

Forest officer A V Satish has filed a complaint at the Beechanahalli police station demanding that action should be taken against the engineer concerned of the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company and the contractor who undertook the work on the electricity line.

In the other incident, a jumbo died when it came in contact with the electric fencing around the farm of Karibasappa in Hangala village of Gundlupet taluk.

The elephant is said to have come from the Bandipur forest. Forest officials said a case had been registered against the owner of the farm, who is absconding.

Crops destroyed

Crops worth lakhs of rupees were destroyed when elephants went berserk in agriculture lands at Hosapura in the taluk Monday night.

The jumbos, which came from the Omkara forest, destroyed maize and turmeric crops. A herd of five jumbos raided the farm of Mahadeva Gowda at midnight.

  The pachyderms also grazed on the maize crops in the fields of Shivanna Gowda and Nanjappachari in the village.

Farmers chased away the elephants themselves as the forest personnel failed to arrive at the spot, despite being informed. They took the forest officials to task when they came to the spot later.