Wild elephant shot dead in coffee estate; villagers hold forest dept responsible

Madikeri, Jun 24: A mighty wild elephant has been shot dead at a coffee estate in Sulugodu village in Kodagu district by unidentified miscreants. The postmortem of the pachyderm has confirmed that the death was due to gunshot.

It is learnt that the elephant was shot to death on Tuesday. The body was shifted through a crane after a tamed elephant's prolonged effort drag the body out of the estate went futile. Hunsur Wild Life Medical Officer Umashankar carried out the autopsy on Wednesday. He said that the elephant was killed by shooting at its head.

An FIR has been registered and a report was submitted to Virajpet court on Tuesday. The investigation will be carried out by the police as per the court orders, he said. ACF?Surya Sen was present.

Meanwhile, people charged that the Forest Department officials were responsible for the death of the elephant.  The elephants have been entering the plantations as the department is not growing plants providing fodder to the wild elephants. Also, three elephants have died on a single day due to unscientific trenches. The forest officials should take the responsibility, they said.

They said bamboo dried up in the forest five years ago. The Forest Department should have grown jackfruit and banyan trees. Also, it should have sown the seeds of bamboo. But, the officials are not taking any of these measures and escape from their responsibility after registering the FIR after the death of elephants. The forest officials have no concern for wild animals, they claimed charging that more than 50 elephants have died during the last five years, owing to negligence by the officials.

Nagarahole forest is full of shrubs and there are no trees and plants. Hundred of lakes in the forest have dried up as desiltation work is not being taken up. Hence, the elephants, left with no food, are entering coffee plantations and are attacking the people, the people claimed.

The villagers accused that whenever the human-elephant conflict is on rise, the forest officials conduct a meeting and send a report full of false information to the government.

“When the elephants die due to lack of water in summer, the officials register the deaths as normal deaths. The merciless officials do not understand that they are receiving salary in the name of wildlife conservation,” they said and urged the state government to initiate stern action against the erring officials.