[kvish]

There is no concept of an emergency within the forest department. We have had so many instances of leopards, snakes and now elephants, and even to this date it takes a full day to capture them and release them later.
In this case, it seems they were alerted a couple of days back. The sight of the poor animal running with shots of non-functioning tranquilizers was very sad. I hope they learn from it.

[drmohitg]

Concept of responsibility does not exist in our society. Its evident everywhere. And ofcourse as a result of it our govt ( read as elected by us) shares the same style of functioning. Just last week NDTV was showing a report that the wild life park made in MP after displacing a number of villages and everything is now lying empty and useless. Reason? Well the Gujarat govt believes Gir Lions are there sole property even if the animal is suffering there due to lack of space. Unless and until we lift our thinking above these petty politics nothing is going to change. Everyother day the newspaper has a photograph of a dead leapord, killed by the villagers because it wandered inside the village.

Man's greed will be the reason for his fall too.

[addyhemmige]

Originally Posted by kvish

There is no concept of an emergency within the forest department. We have had so many instances of leopards, snakes and now elephants, and even to this date it takes a full day to capture them and release them later.
In this case, it seems they were alerted a couple of days back. The sight of the poor animal running with shots of non-functioning tranquilizers was very sad. I hope they learn from it.

Well, I would not put the entire blame on the forest dept.

Generally, wild animals move/migrate when it is dark. The forest dept was alerted about these elephants when they were sighted near Bannur/T Narasipur (not sure where). The first step the dept does is to scare the elephants back to the forest. But, what probably happened in this case, is

1. that the elephants were already far away from a forest. They were surrounded by farmlands around them.

2. The people of the village and the forest dept people scared the elephants at nightfall.

3. The elephants, while running probably encountered another obstacle on the way (maybe another group of people) and that could have made them lose direction and head towards Mysore city.

4. When they entered the city, they panicked upon seeing the large crowd of people and that probably lead to the rampage.

As I have said earlier, the crowd itself is the major factor in the delay of bringing this situation under control. If you have seen TV footage, the police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse the crowd. This makes the dept's job that much tougher.

I'm not saying that the Forest dept is not to blame, but in this situation, I believe they have done whatever they could within the constraints.


A few days before, I read a news article that the forest dept did not have adequate tranquilizers and guns. The govt must step in to ensure that adequate infrastructure and training be provided to staff of the dept (police or forest) so that they can handle situations better.

The govt should also consider the advice of wildlife experts in preventing man-animal conflicts. But then, these animals are not their votebank, why would they do this?

[Ragul]

Originally Posted by kvish

There is no concept of an emergency within the forest department. We have had so many instances of leopards, snakes and now elephants, and even to this date it takes a full day to capture them and release them later.
In this case, it seems they were alerted a couple of days back. The sight of the poor animal running with shots of non-functioning tranquilizers was very sad. I hope they learn from it.

Quoting from a news report

Forest department officials were also caught napping and while the forest guards frantically fired tranquilisers at the elephants to bring them down, the animals showed little signs of slowing down. Mishra said that though the guards are trained to tackle such situations, they failed to ascertain the exact dosage to be administered while tranquilizing an elephant.

A few years back forest officials were "rescuing" a leopard that had fallen in a deep well. The poor thing was half conscious and improperly tranquilized then dragged out of the well with ropes tied incorrectly. The whole operation was conducted in a shabby manner to be seen to be believed. They pulled it out with the cat dangling so precariously (it would have made any sensible onlooker gasp instantly) with less care than one would haul out a sack of goods - it got strangulated to death on the way up. Indeed it was handled so disrespectfully in a manner no living creature should be handled - I was ashamed on watching the video.

These buggers are busy lining their pockets with bribes from the timber mafia while they oversee the national assets of forest land like their personal fiefdom and harass the nature loving trekker who might stray into the zone or commit the offense of lighting a fire with fallen twigs to cook his meals.

--Ragul

[lohithrao]

A very sad incident and i hope now some morns dont use this as a reason to hurt this animals, with the shrinking green cover this kind of incident may become regular...
i dont see any solution for this at all as someone mentioned earlier its "human centric" we humans think about ourselfs first and then the other creature so with this perspective it will be the animals/nature at the loosing end:(

[drkakkilaya]

It is sad, very sad. i felt so sad for people who lost their life. Also felt sad for the helpless animals who are forced to travel in search of food and home.

who do we blame ? forest officials ? Politicians ? Villagers ? people in city ? who ? I believe each and everyone of us have to take fair share of responsibility for what is going on. It is our greed to eat up natural resources thinking only how WE and only We benefit from it.Irrespective of what effect it has.
Easy to blame people around the forest that they encroach into the forest. At the end of the day when getting one meal a day becomes scarce , desperation of food drives them to encroach the forest. What is govt doing to stop this ? only eating up taxes and stashing it away in banks.

I remember once i was returning from trissur to mysore , i decided to drive through gudalur via chundale , muppainad as GPS showed its in bandipur forest range. As i drove thru the road expecting forest to start i reached madhumalai junction and i was so zapped that the entire forest route i drove was a huge tea estate. then i began to think ,and reality started to sink into me that bandipur is a very small place.Where would the animals go ?? it was a reality strike to me.

Theres no point in any blame game. If something is not done right now then the coming generations will be reading the stories that there once lived a carnivore which had the colour of a setting sun with black stripes all over it and it was called a tiger. And a huge gentle animal a descendent of mammoth, not mammoth anymore....so on.

[Ragul]

Fragmented corridor led elephants from T Narsipur to Mysore - Bangalore - DNA

Residents of Bannur said encroachment of forest land by private people have created obstructions on the traditional elephant corridor, but the forest department preferred to look the other way. At several places, the encroachers had put up fences.
“They have started cultivating in those areas. The crops have become a money-spinner for them. Those who live along the elephant corridor grow plantations like banana and other fast growing varieties every year, knowing very well that elephants will stop to eat them. They later claim compensation from the government for crop loss,” Muddu Mallappa, a villager in Mahadevapura, said.

Like I said We Humans are to blame.



Tea and coffee plantations are really bad for the ecology. They destroy vast tracts of forest land to produce a commodity that is largely exported, filling the coffers of a private few individuals but contributing little to enrich the local land and its native folks.


I do love my cuppa morning tea and coffee no doubt it makes me a "hypocrite". The trick I suppose is to limit cultivation of crops that damage the ecology. Easier said than done.



--Ragul

[pypkmsrikanth]

I read in today's paper that a couple of elephants have strayed to the villages near Thoppur, Dharmapuri and have stayed put there despite attempts to send them back to the forest.

The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Dharmapuri News : Wild elephants create flutter in village

I fear for the elephants long term survival, with the numbers growing in the forests they will soon outgrow the carrying capacity of the forests.

[CountDracoola]

The Hindu : Kerala / Kalpetta News : Injured elephant creates panic in Wayanad villages
Another article on Man Elephant conflict - this time in Kerala