Pregnant elephant shot dead in Nagarahole

Range Forest officer Kiran suspected that elephant may have strayed into Penjalli division in search of food and fell victim to farmers’ bullet.

He further said the elephant was spotted in the morning behind a school built for the children of Nagapura tribes. “Since the classes were on, we did not chase it to the forest but were prepared to do it in the evening. But by afternoon, we were informed about the elephant’s death,” he said.

The dead elephant will be cremated after the post-mortem, Kiran said.  This is the 75th jumbo death in the Hunsur sub-division in the last one-and-half-year, according to Doddahejjur Gram Panchayat former president D R Mahesh.

Demand to build a wall around the National Park to prevent wild elephants straying into the village has been long-pending.

A blue print of the project at a cost of 400 crore was prepared when Chennigappa was the forest minister. But with the fall of the government, the project was put in the backburner, he observed.

In the last two years, the Forest Department has dug elephant prevention trenches in 10-15 km at a cost of Rs 65 lakh but it has not served any purpose. Instead, the authorities concerned must consider building wall to protect wildlife, suggested Bharatiya Girijana Shikshana Samsthe director M B Prabhu.