Another death: All jumbos to be captured?

HASSAN: The human-animal conflict around Sakleshpur-Alur region of the district claimed another life on Wednesday evening, taking the toll to four over the last 18 months.

Yogesh, 47, an employee of a coffee plantation, was trampled by an elephant at Heggove. A resident of Halehonkaravalli, he noticed a jumbo in the vicinity and alerted labourers to stay away, but fell a victim as the pachyderm attacked him when he was talking on his mobile phone..

Forest officials said around 35 elephants have been sighted in and around Honkaravalli region in recent days. In order to tackle human-animal conflicts, an early warning system such as display of information about movement of elephants on electronic signboards and SMS alerts to people on their mobile phones was launched by Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), a NGO, in recent days.

Mr Mahesh, president, Hassan coffee planters association, however, said such conflicts would end on mass translocation of jumbos from the region, a fact contested by officers of forest department on grounds that other elephants from neighbouring areas would move to Sakleshpur.  Besides, they queried “to which area are we going to shift them?”

Meanwhile, Chief Conservator of Forests, AK Singh, says since 30 years about 67 trouble-making jumbos have been translocated from Hassan and a proposal has been sent to capture around 42-elephants from the region once again.