BELAGAVI: The Forest Department has conducted a special campaign over the past two or three days to capture and relocate elephants that were causing damage to the agricultural fields to Shimoga.
However, incidents of elephant’s havoc have started again in Khanapur Taluka.
A herd of elephants have once again entered Koundal, a small village which is close to Khanapur Taluk in the District of Belagavi, Karnataka State, a locality near Khanapur-Nandgad road, and Jalgaon.
Their presence have caused immense damage to the banana trees, small teak trees, coconut trees, and vegetables in the fields of the farmer Nagesh Bhosale, local citizen and social activist from Koundal. This incident has affected and has severely caused a loss of thousands of rupees.
On January 14, Tuesday, detailed information revealed when Nagesh Bhosale went to his farm, located near the village discovered significant destruction. He found that the coconut trees and banana trees and other tress of his farm had been uprooted and damaged apparently by the elephants, which resulted in substantial financial losses .
Nagesh Bhosale had also cultivated vegetables on his farm, which were found to be damaged as well. When he looked closely, he discovered the foot prints of elephants were there in the field. He noticed three different sizes of elephant foot prints there – both small and large.
As per sources, a herd of elephants has also entered in Haruri region directly which was noticed by some the the farmers on Tuesday evening. Due to which the farmers of the area Haruri are also worried.
Therefore, he has estimated that three elephants were responsible for the destruction of his farm. He has informed about the matter to the forest department for further action. All the farmers of the region Koundal, Jalgaon and Karambala demanded the authorities to control the elephants.
Recently, a herd of elephants has been controlled.
“The forest deparment has been informed about the matter but no strict actions has been taken by them to save our agricultural field “,stated by Nagesh Bhosale
Four days ago, an elephant was shifted from Shimago to Jalge, a location situated some distance from Koundal.
The elephant had been causing damage to the agricultural field in that area, was subsequently noticed by the Forest Department.
However, while this incident was fresh, the return of elephants to Koundal has highlighted the concerns and has spread panic among the farmers about their crops and livelihood.