Karnataka: The jumbos are coming, rush to the first floor of this special bus stand!

Chamrajnagar: If cities now have elevated corridors for trains with the Metro Rail making its entry, a village near the Banidpur National Park has an elevated bus stop.

The elephant scare in the region after a woman waiting at a bus stand was trampled to death a couple of years ago by a straying jumbo, has driven the authorities to build the two-storeyed bus stop with a staircase running on either side of it for the safety of the villagers in Nagatanapura, located between Omkar and the Hediyala forest range on the periphery of the Bandipur National Park.

The bus stop at Nagatanapura is used by people of all villages in the area, says wildlife conservationist, Raghuram. “There is a regular movement of elephant herds in the area and the Nagatanapura bus stand is the only one which is elevated on the stretch from Omkar to the Hediyala ranges.And so people use it the most as they feel safe,” he explains.

A villager, Aruna, of Nagatanapura, says people are very afraid of elephants in the area, especially after dusk, when they start to move in herds from one place to another.

“It is then that commuters fear they may come under attack and prefer to wait for buses on the elevated stop to keep out of their way,” he says, adding, “Every day we see herds crossing but luckily no one has been attacked of late.”

A villager of Balluru Hundi, Mahesh, says although the forest department has rail fenced the border of the Bandipur National Park , the herds still sneak out and enter villages.

“My 12-year-old son would have been a victim of an elephant attack a couple of days ago as he was chased by one in our fields before the forest guards on duty fired in the air to chase it away,” he recounts.