Tirupati: Farmer Killed by Elephant, Negligence by Forest Staff Alleged
Tirupati: One more life has been claimed in the long-standing issue of human-animal conflict in Chittoor district. A lone elephant fatally attacked a farmer at PMK Thanda under the Kuppam assembly constituency.
The 70-year-old farmer, Kanna Naik, was on his way to his field abutting the forests in the early hours of Sunday. The pachyderm that pounced on him has been roaming the Kuppam region and the Tamil Nadu forests for the past two weeks, it is learnt.
"We visited PMK Thanda twice last week and warned the villagers not to remain in the fields after sunset. We strictly told them not to go out alone after dark,” stated district forest officer Chaitanya Reddy.
The forest department will give Rs 5 lakh as initial compensation to Kanna Naik's family, though they are entitled to Rs 10lakh.
Forest and police officials arrived at the scene and transported Naik's remains to a local medical facility for postmortem. Locals expressed their frustration, accusing the forest department of a complete failure in controlling elephant attacks in the area.
The Kuppam and Palamaner regions are forested. Tuskers have inhabited these areas for centuries. Previously, the forest department documented the movements of elephants through village-level conservation committees, enabling timely alerts to villagers. This practice no more exists, despite several casualties and crop losses.
Forest officials cite the standard excuse that they are under-staffed, particularly of staff tasked with tracking the movement of elephants. "In the past, forest officials alerted border villages about elephant movements through the forest conservation committee. However, officials now only react after incidents of loss of life, property damage, and crop destruction”, lamented local farmers.
Forest authorities cite several reasons for the present plight – like, overgrazing, forest land encroachment, and illegal logging. These reduce food and water in forests, forcing animals into human areas, they claim.
“A shortage of personnel to track elephants and the prevalence of low-hanging power lines further complicate mitigation efforts. Meanwhile, the elephant population in the region has risen from eight in 2012 to over 100 at present,” officials say.
