In a tragic incident a wild elephant, which went amok, trampled two CRPF jawans outside their camp near Taralu village on the outskirts of Bengaluru on Sunday. According to police, the incident occured in the morning near the CRPF camp and where in the wild elephant strayed and trampled two Jawans to death.
Krishna Kumar, police inspector at Kaggalipura police station, said, “The incident occurred in the early hours when the elephant strayed into the CRPF camp at Taralu village from the adjacent Savandurga forest and attacked the victims.”
CRPF assistant sub-inspector Dakshina Murthy, 52, and constable Puttappa lamani, 35, are the victims of the attack. Murthy hailed from Tamil Nadu and lamani was from Haveri district in Karnataka. The CRPF camp was located just 35 kms away from Bengaluru.
According to Deputy Conservator of Forests Javen Mumtaz the rogue elephant has escaped to the Savandurga forest after the incident. He said “A case has been registered under Section 174 of the CRPC as the victims were on guard duty. The rogue elephant has escaped to the forest after the horrible incident.”
Karnataka, which has one of the highest number of Asiatic elephants in the wild in the world, has started elephant census and this incident has brought to the lore the increasing man animal conflict apart from eroding forest cover and their migratory route.
The incident has happened just 35 kms away from IT City Bengaluru it clearly indicates shrinking forest space which has many time led to conflict.
Karnataka has over 6,500 wild elephants. The cutting of migratory route and large scale encroachments of the forest space due to urbanisation have made elephants frequently strayed into the city space.
According to Forest department sources, lot of elephants have been migrating between Tamil Nadu and Kerala forests in search of water and fodder. The drought like situation and short of availability of water has made these elephants come to Cauvery valley.