Foresters open fire to scare jumbo herd, nine suffer pellet injuries

MYSURU: Nine people suffered pellet injuries when forest personnel
opened fire to scare a herd of elephants closing in on a villager in
Chamarajanagar district’s Madhvanahalli in Kollegal taluk on Wednesday.

Of the nine injured, two were discharged after first aid at a Kollegal
hospital. The other seven injured were shifted to Mysuru’s KR Hospital for
a procedure to remove pellets from their body. They are out of danger, a
hospital source said.

Deputy conservator of forests (MM Hills Range) V Yedukondalu told TOI that 60 forest personnel headed out to Madhuvanahallli around 9am following a complaint about a herd of elephants menacingly moving around. “We wanted to send them towards BR Hills forests, but the majestic animals strayed towards a sugarcane field. At that time, a villager walked into the field with a pet dog. Elephants, then, started running towards the villager, forcing us to resort to firing in the air,” he added.

Attacks by wild animals are on the rise, say villagers
The cane grass was nearly 15ft high, with near-zero visibility. “When our staff fired in the air, pellets hit nine teenagers watching the operation from top of trees and rocks,” he said. Later, the forest department successfully sent the herd back to the forest.

Villagers said the elephants entered the village on Tuesday evening. Shailendra, a farmer, said attacks by wild animals have become common in the recent past and sought compensation for the affected families from the forest department.

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