BENGALURU: The communication of Karnataka Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre to Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi that on the latter’s advice, Rs 15 lakh compensation has been given to the family of a man killed by an elephant in Kerala has been questioned by officials from the department and experts.
Along the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, the state shares 79 km boundary with Waynad and along Nagarhole, 40 km. “Elephants are free animals and they know no political boundaries. For Khandre to agree to an advice from the MP shows what they are thinking. In the letter, Khandre has acknowledged that forest boundaries are shrinking,” said an expert working closely with the government.
An official, seeking anonymity, said the makhana (tuskless male) wandering in Waynad has been identified as one from Karnataka, as it is radio collared. “But that does not mean Karnataka owns it. This is the language of agitated and uneducated villagers. They tell us take your elephant or tiger away, when there is crop loss or death. But politicians too talking a similar language is uncalled for,” he added.
Another official pointed out that elephants from Kerala and Tamil Nadu too wander into Karnataka, but they are not radio collared. “We ascertain the information through camera trap images. Recently, an elephant captured and released from Coimbatore killed a man in Karnataka.
The state forest department captured the elephant and shifted it to a camp. In another case, an elephant sent from Kerala to Ramapura camp in Bandipur died enroute. The postmortem found that it died of a heart attack. We did not ask for compensation. Around 80 elephants have been radio collared,” he added.
“We have regular meetings with Kerala and Tamil Nadu officials on wildlife management. The talk of Karnataka animal straying never came up,” said another official.
“An inquiry must be conducted on whether the release of the elephant from a conflict zone was appropriate and the actual measures on the ground to track the released elephant were in place. A review of the implementation of the specific directions of the High Court in the major judgment on elephants must be conducted,” said Praveen Bhargav, Trustee – Wildlife First.