Forest officials here are taking the help of trained elephants to counter a herd of wild jumbos that have killed four villagers in the region.
By K Basiri Reddy
Vizag (Andhra Pradesh), Aug 25 : Forest officials here are taking the help of trained elephants to counter a herd of wild jumbos that have killed four villagers in the region.
A herd of elephants has gone on rampage in several villages along the Andhra Pradesh-Orissa border, and killed four villagers in the last one week alone.
Scared villagers complained to forest officials, who in turn have brought in a specially trained elephant to help them.
Jayanti is one of the dozens of elephants trained at a camp in Chittoor District, to befriend her wild friends and take them away from human habitation.
Forest officer P.V. Ramana says once Jayanti is released among the herd, the task of diverting the herd should take about one week.
"Officers have already reached those villages, and will decide the future course of the operation. Jayanti is trained to make friends with the other elephants, and divert them off the track they are following now," said Ramana.
With forests areas fast depleting, elephants seeking food, come to villages and sometimes raid the fields.
Some emerge from the jungle to take advantage of the paddy harvest, others have discovered a taste for local liquor, and drink everything they can lay their trunks on.
From China to Indonesia, India to Vietnam, Asian elephants are in danger, their habitats shrinking fast, and their communities increasingly isolated.
According to the 2005 national census, there are between 25,000 to 28,000 elephants in India, including 1,500 male tuskers of breeding age.
Elephants are a protected and endangered species in India, with the country having nearly half of the world's 60,000 Asian elephants.
But conservationists say the pachyderm population has fallen rapidly in recent years because of a loss of habitat caused by human encroachment in forest areas, leading to human-elephant conflicts.
ANI