The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Elephant relocation: Government has mammoth task on hand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Elephant relocation: Government has mammoth task on hand

Raghava M.

Project Elephant director seeks detailed plan of the proposal

IN SEARCH OF FOOD: A file picture of a herd of elephants straying into human habitation in Hassan district.

BANGALORE: The harried people of Hassan and Kodagu districts may get relief from marauding elephants if the State Government executes a plan formulated to relocate the rogue herds.

The Project Elephant chief has expressed his willingness to permit such an exercise if the Government is ready to undertake this mammoth task. Director of Project Elephant A.N. Prasad has urged the Government to submit a detailed plan to relocate 50 elephants from Hassan and Kodagu districts that have been damaging crops and killing people.

“It is a very big exercise. I need to know every detail of the exercise before granting an approval,” he told The Hindu on the sidelines of a seminar on elephant corridors.

The relocation involves identifying the rogue elephants and tranquillising them. They have to be then moved on lorries to a new location before reviving them. The elephants are relocated in new areas where there are not many of them. But this has provoked opposition from people at the new locations who fear that the elephants will turn against them. The people of Kodagu and those living near the Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary have opposed the relocation plan, said Forest Department officials.

The State Government sought permission to resettle elephants that were causing problems in Sakaleshpur, Yeslur and Arkalgud of Hassan district and Somwarpet in Kodagu district.

Man-elephant conflicts have been reported from Gonikoppa, Virajpet and Titimati of Kodagu district that borders Nagarahole National Park.

The Government wanted the elephants from these locations to be sent to Bandipur National Park and Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary.

Mr. Prasad said a two-member team of the Central Steering Committee of Project Elephant had approved the relocation. Before giving the final approval, Mr. Prasad asked the Government to explain how it intended to transport the elephants, the personnel to be involved and the medication to be used for sedating the animals. The Government should explain how it intended to make the relocation foolproof. The relocated elephants should not be able to return to their places of origin, he said.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) I.B. Srivastava said he had despatched the readiness plan for the “mammoth exercise”. The plan gave all necessary details.

“It is a very difficult exercise,” he said. “I have asked our personnel to trap as many as they can,” he added.

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