Tirupati: Wild elephants killed a 55-year-old farmer at Nagavandlapalli village in Irala mandal of Chittoor district on Tuesday evening. The dying reignites considerations over the rising frequency of untamed elephant intrusions within the undivided Chittoor district.
Ganapathi Yadav had been sleeping at his farmland when he seen a herd of elephants coming into his area. In a bid to guard his crop, he tried to drive them away. One of many elephants trampled him.
In keeping with official data, wild elephant assaults have claimed the lives of round 25 folks within the area since 2011. Compensation for victims’ households has been doubled from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh by the N. Chandrababu Naidu administration. Between 2015 and 2024, crops over 203 acres have been broken by wild elephants. ₹56 lakh out of ₹76 lakh sanctioned have been disbursed as compensation.
Locals allege that regardless of the presence of educated kumki elephants Vinayaka and Jayant, and up to date procurement of further elephants from Karnataka, forest division has not utilised them successfully to cope with the wild elephant menace.
A senior forest official acknowledged {that a} herd of roughly 15 elephants has been lively within the area for the previous three months, repeatedly damaging agricultural land. “A report has been submitted to the federal government. We’re engaged on enhancing protecting measures,” he maintained.
Forest officers have dismissed allegations of inaction, declaring {that a} particular activity drive has been deployed to trace and handle elephant actions. The workforce consists of forest officers from Chittoor and Tirupati districts, sub-divisional forest officers, vary officers and 10 educated elephant trackers.
“To supply well timed alerts to residents in forest-bordering villages, we now have carried out a Good Digital Fencing system,” mentioned a forest officer. “This method makes use of solar-powered GSM and GPS expertise linked to the Tirupati Command Management Room. This permits real-time monitoring of elephant motion and swift response by native groups,” the forest officer added.
