Bangalore: A herd of wild tuskers ventured towards the outskirts of Bangalore, trampling four persons to death and critically injuring another early Monday morning. Forest Department sources said these elephants have been venturing into the suburban areas since Sunday and efforts are on to get tame elephants from Mysore to lead the wild ones back to the forests.
The incident comes a day after a journalist of a Kannada daily was killed by an elephant when he went too close to it to take a photograph at Orohallikere village in Hoskote taluk and three persons were trampled to death by a herd of pachyderms on Saturday at Kanivehalli in Kolar district.
Forest and police officials, who asked the villagers to remain indoors, are making efforts to guide the elephants to a nearby forest, forest department official Rangegowda said. The elephants were just a few kilometers away from Electronic City, where many IT and BT companies are located, he said.
"There are chances of the wild elephants entering city limits as they are disturbed by people. Therefore we have blocked the road leading to Electronic City and kept open the road leading towards Bannerghatta and Tamil Nadu," he said. "We will press the services of elephants used during the Dasara festival in Mysore to guide the wild elephants into the forest area. The trained elephants are being transported to Bangalore. We have also made arrangements for tranquilising the wild elephants in case of any untoward incident," Rangegowda said.
Officials from Bennarghatta National Park have been deployed to drive back the jumbos to the Tamil Nadu forest. Assistant Conservator of Forests Puttanna said elephants had been causing a lot of damage to life and property in the last six months in Bangarpet and Malur areas of Kolar district.
(With Additional Inputs From PTI)
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