Nearly two months after two trained Kumki elephants were brought to the Parvathipuram Manyam district to drive away a herd of 12 wild elephants, farmers continue to suffer crop losses even as the forest department incurs significant expenditure on the preventive operation.
The two kumki elephants, Jayant and Abhimanyu, were brought from Palamaneru in Chittoor district in July and housed at the elephant camp set up in the Guchchimi reserve forest in Seethanagaram mandal. The project was launched in the presence of Parvathipuram MLA Bonela Vijayachandra, chief conservator of forests IKV Raju and DFO Prasuna.
At that time, they said the trained elephants would help drive the wild herd away and minimise losses to crops, property, and human life.
Forest officials are currently spending around `7,500 a day on feeding the two kumki elephants. However, despite two attempts to push the herd out of the district, the operation has yet to achieve the desired results.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, forest range officer T Manikantheswar said the operation had been carried out twice. “Due to the rain, we are on hold. Very soon we are going to make another attempt,” he said.
The herd is believed to have migrated from Odisha several years ago and settled in the district because of the region’s abundant water sources and fodder availability. Officials are working to guide the elephants back to Odisha.
However, the operation has caused friction between the forest departments of AP and Odisha. According to AP forest officials, the Odisha authorities have expressed reservations about accommodating additional elephants, saying the state already has more than 2,000 elephants and frequent incidents of human-elephant conflict occurred there.
Senior forest authorities from both states had held discussions before launching the operation. Nevertheless, Odisha’s present position has complicated attempts to relocate the herd.
Adding to the operational costs, the forest department has deployed 25 outsourced trackers to monitor the elephants. Each receives around `16,000 a month. Despite the manpower and expenditure involved, the herd remains in the region.
Farmers say the situation on the ground remains unchanged.
While forest officials visit the affected fields, assess damage and initiate compensation procedures, the process is often slow and inadequate, the farmers allege.
The farmers argue that repeated compensation exercises are no substitute to a long-term solution and are demanding more effective measures to protect their crops and livelihoods. With crop losses occurring repeatedly and with inter-state differences complicating the operation, the district’s elephant management programme remains far from achieving its objective.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
