Andhra-Karnataka forest officials at loggerheads

Nellore: Forest officials of Andhra Pradesh are up in arms against their counterparts in Karnataka for driving a herd of seven wild elephants into the AP forest. AP forest officers allege that Karnataka forest staff instigated the residents of a border village in Karnataka to attack the elephant trackers of AP forest wing under the pretext that they are forcing the tuskers towards Karnataka though their mission was to prevent them from entering the habitations.

AP officials also resented firing crackers to force the tuskers to move away from Karnataka forest to AP. As of now both the officials are camping at the border keeping a tab on the herd hiding near a tank at Rajapeta in Karnataka.

Speaking to this newspaper, Forest Range Officer of Kuppam area K. Kalappa Naidu said that elephants came from Karnataka forest to Gudipalli mandal of Chittoor district on Tuesday night and returned to the tank at Peddaganla Halli in Karnataka on their own on Wednesday.

“The forest officials of Karnataka also came to the spot along with police and blamed the trackers of AP for the re-entry of tuskers into their area. The residents of the village also accused our men prompted by the forest officials and demanded them to leave the spot. We rushed to the area and questioned the rationale behind asking our trackers to leave when it is their duty to keep a tab on the movement of the elephants. They are against our presence because they want to drive them towards our state and they even burst crackers to force the animals to leave the place,” Mr Kalappa Naidu alleged.

He said they have stopped all the traffic moving towards Karnataka with the help of police on Wednesday night anticipating the tuskers to cross the road and they moved towards Chowdempalli in Santhipuram mandal as expected during the early hours of Thursday. They again returned to Karnataka on Thursday night and the other side wanted to force them towards AP again, the ranger alleged.

He said they too burst crackers but not to drive them to other side but only to keep them away from habitations. He underlined the need to allow the herd to choose its path as they will attack people and go on a rampage if disturbed frequently. Referring to hundreds of people coming to see the herd, he said they are finding it very difficult to keep the people at bay.

Meanwhile a 30-year-old man, Manjunath of Karnataka suffered fracture on his leg after he fell down while trying escape from elephants chasing him at Chinnakotturu near Rajapeta road in Karnataka on Friday.