Ooty: The man-elephant conflict has taken a serious turn now with political parties contemplating to organize a bandh in the Pandalur-Gudalur belt on Saturday to highlight the plight of residents there. T.Ramesh, a resident of the Mangorange area, who spoke to Deccan Chronicle, accused the Forest department of turning a blind eye to the man-elephant conflict in Pandalur that is resulting in loss of human lives.
"Forest officials failed to attend to phone calls over the past couple of days when the residents here wanted to inform them about the movement of a stray elephant. Government should intervene in this issue to save human lives, which are more precious than animal ones. Steps should be taken to identify rogue stray elephants, capture and relocate them," he added.
