Elephant ‘Omkar’ crosses Tiracol river, re-enters Maharashtra

Keri/Mapusa: Almost a fortnight after the 10-year-old sub-adult elephant, Omkar, wandered away from its herd in Maharashtra and entered Goa, there has been much discussion between officials of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka about his rehabilitation.While any action on ground is awaited, Omkar on Saturday crossed the Tiracol river and moved from the Kadshi nullah to Satoshe- Mandura, in Maharashtra.In an apparent indication of the simmering man-animal conflict due to farmers angered by Omkar’s damage of their crops, the villagers of Ugvem in Pernem have decided to gather near the Shree Devi Mauli temple at 10.30am on Sunday to carry out a campaign to drive Omkar away from the village. They have appealed to all farmers to come armed with fireworks, drums and torches for this purpose.Govt still awaits expertise from Karnataka to tame the pachyderm that went on a rampage on agriculture and orchards lands in Pernem.Meanwhile, sources said that farmers in Maharashtra, to where Omkar has presently crossed over, are trying to drive him back into Goa.Over the past 14 days, Omkar has covered a distance of about 400km and reached the villages of Ugvem via Kadshi, Mopa, Torxem and Tambose in Pernem.After staying at Tambose for about six-seven days, the elephant entered Ugvem — further towards Pernem and away from its original destination in Maharashtra. Omkar extensively damaged crops in every village he stomped through.Locals said that the elephant caused a lot of damage to banana, guava, paddy, arecanut, coconut and other horticultural crops causing panic among the farmers in Ugvem.In the Ugvem area, Omkar stays in the field for hours a day, eats his fill, rolls around for three-four hours and when thirsty, bathes in the Tiracol river and returns to the field.Farmers have expressed strong displeasure with govt. “Govt is only making promises, but no concrete action is being taken,” said farmers Uday and Shashikant Mahale.Since Goa lacks the necessary expertise and resources to capture the elephant, it has reached out to the more experienced Karnataka govt for help with its trained Kumki elephants to escort Omkar out. However, as these trained elephants were busy with Dussehra festivities, the action to move Omkar were delayed.Meanwhile, environmental activists from Goa and Maharashtra have raised apprehension over the proposed move of Goa and Maharashtra govts pertaining the relocation of the elephant Omkar from Pernem.The group from Maharashtra on Friday met assistant conservator of forests of Goa, Ramesh Kumar. Sanjay Sawant from Dodamarg, Rohit Kamble from Belgundi and others requested Kumar to use a holistic approach in dealing with the elephant.“There is need for a holistic approach regarding rehabilitating the elephant from areas in Pernem instead of relocating him, as such a move could lead to stress and potential harm to the elephant during the process, which includes transportation and acclimation,” Sawant told TOI.