Wild Elephants Attack People, Destroy Crops

Vijayawada/Visakhapatnam/Tirupati: Andhra Pradesh faces a tough task in dealing with wild elephants that stray into human habitations, eat away crops, trample on villagers and cause fatalities. The scenario is worse in the four districts of Parvathipuram Manyam, Chittoor, Tirupati and Annamayya.

On Thursday, 74-year-old farmer Devaabattula Yacoob was trampled to death at Peda Bondapalli village of Seetanagaram mandal under Parvathipuram Manyam district. As many as 12 persons have lost their lives in such incidents in the district since 2017.

Foresters say there are two herds of wild elephants. One herd has seven and another four elephants including a baby elephant. All of them are female.

The foresters cite a series of reasons for the man-animal conflict -- like encroachment of forest lands for human habitations, the raising of food crops like sugarcane, banana, maize etc by farmers in the vicinity that attracts tuskers, and attempts by people at disturbing and taunting the elephants.

With a baby elephant being in the herd, the female wild elephants are very possessive and aggressive and start attacking whoever tries to come near the baby elephant to see it out of curiosity. Youngsters go crazy and take photos on their mobile phones, further subjecting the elephant herds to trouble.

Foresters say that the two herds of elephants have almost shifted to the plain areas from the deep forests and are moving around for food. They can be sighted even in the daytime.

“We have engaged elephant trackers to follow them 24x7 and alert the local villagers about the presence of the elephants in one or other locality, through tom-tom. We are advising the villages to be alert and avoid such places for safety,” foresters said.

But many inhabitants are not listening to such alerts. They turn crazy and try to take the herd’s photos on their mobile phones, or even attempt selfies with the elephants, according to the foresters.

The Parvathipuram Manyam district forest officer GAP Prasuna said, “We would set up an elephant camp in the forest to accommodate the two kumki elephants once they are handed over to AP by the Karnataka government. We would use them to drive the wild elephants back into the forests from the plain areas so as to ensure safety to the people.”

According to an estimate, in the last 10 years, property and crops worth over `six crore were damaged or destroyed by these elephant herds in the district.

The Chittoor forests harbour 90 to 110 resident wild elephants along with a good number of migrants.

The recent presence of a herd of 16 elephants at Palem Panchayat of Pulicherla mandal in the district frightened the locals. The tuskers destroyed crops and disrupted the people’s lives.

Recently, farmer Reddy Naik was trapped to death by elephants at PMK Thanda of Ramakuppam mandal. This was the second fatality within four months.

Another farmer, Raja Reddy, was killed at Bandarlapalli near Piler on October 15. Foresters attributed the rising instances of man-animal conflict to deforestation, illegal wood collection and scarcity of forest fodder.

The carcass of a young elephant was found on August 25 at Pulibonupalle near Talakona forest. Its death was due to illness or electrocution. Villagers use illegal electric fencing to protect crops from getting eaten away.

Foresters say the present grim situation warranted the requisition of the four kumki elephants from Karnataka to AP. After these are trained, they would be deployed with animal trackers and trained mahouts to control the wild elephants.

with inputs from K.P.M. PATNAIK and Avinash P. Subramanyam