Foresters to radio-collar wild jumbos in Saklespur-Alur reg

Mysuru: The forest department will launch a drive to radio-collar wild elephants in the Sakleshpur-Alur region in Hassan district in March to track their movement and reduce human-animal conflict.
Since 1987, the forest department has relocated 84 wild elephants in the region but still the department faced the wrath of villagers, given the continued man-animal conflict.Now the forest department has decided to radio-collar the jumbos to monitor their movement, given the frequent man-elephant conflict.
Several herds have around 60 elephants and farmers from both the taluks have demanded the forest department to take action to stop the elephants from raiding their crop fields and destroying the paddy, maize, bananas.
The foresters who held a meeting to discuss the measures to be adopted decided on radio-collaring in March because the farmers need to harvest coffee and paddy till the end of February.
The GPS-enabled radio collars will provide round-the-clock updates about the location of a herd. The foresters can chase away the elephants if they are found moving towards the agriculture fields or villages and alert villagers so that they don’t come in the herd’s path.
Radio-collar for two elephants
Foresters in the Hassan division have held meetings with department high-ups in Bengaluru and prepared an action plan to take up the drive. The foresters said that after the discussion it was decided to radio-collar two elephants. While the permission has been given to radio-collar two elephants, the drive will be taken up before the start of the monsoon. “We take up the drive in March after the coffee harvesting season ends,” an official said.
Sakleshpur sub-division ACF CN Suresh said: “At present, we have formed four elephant conflict groups in the region which include forest staff and villagers who track the movement of the herds and lone tuskers and update the department as well as alert the villagers to prevent man-animal conflicts. The rapid response group will start the work from 6 am to track the location of the elephants till 6 pm. During the night, announcements of the elephant movement will be done through mike to alert people.”
From 1987 to 2021, a total of 64 elephants were captured and translocated. There are 40 to 50 elephants in Sakleshpur and Alur taluks. The forest department has taken up, erecting a 21 km rail barricade from Dodda Betta near Nagavara camp.