Forest dept sleeps as marauding jumbos raid and ravage crops price Rs 42 crore in Kerala

Express News Service

KASARAGOD: On March 12, the Karadka Block panchayat launched a Rs 3.33-crore undertaking to construct a 29-km hanging solar-cum-electric fence to guard 5 panchayats from marauding elephants. After greater than a month, the work has barely begun.

Farmers, who’re dropping their crops and persistence day by day, mentioned they can’t anticipate the photo voltaic fence to be accomplished, including that the federal government ought to instantly push the 12 elephants which have camped at Muliyar gram panchayat again into the Karnataka forest. “We are not only losing our crops to the elephants. Now, the threat to our lives has also increased,” mentioned C Ramakrishnan, president of the Annakaryam (Elephantine Matter) Farmers Collective, a civil society group fashioned to press the federal government to seek out a right away and lasting resolution to the man-animal battle.

The Annakaryam Collective circulated a kind among the many residents of Delampady, Karadka, Muliyar, Kuttikol and Bedadka gram panchayats to estimate the extent of their loss. The collective discovered that 390 farmers have misplaced crops and properties price Rs 42 crore since October 2019. “But the last time the Department of Forest compensated a farmer for a wild animal attack was in 2017,” mentioned T Gopinathan Nair of Kanathur in Muliyar.

The elephants had raided his 10 acres no less than six instances destroying arecanut bushes, plantains, coconut bushes and an enormous community of irrigation pipelines. But he utilized for compensation solely as soon as due to the cumbersome course of. “That application is pending since September 7, 2020,” mentioned Nair.

The destruction brought on by elephants on the farmland of Savithri Bhat at
Katipallam close to Kanathur in Muliyar panchayat.

The Annakaryam Collective’s foremost WhatsApp group is houseful with 256 members and each morning round 2 am, it begins buzzing with voice messages from distraught farmers. “This has been happening since October 2019. The 10 to 12 elephants that arrived then never left,” mentioned Ramakrishnan. They discovered an ideal oasis on the financial institution of the Payaswini River, with quick access to farm lands within the 5 gram panchayats.

In the early hours of Saturday (April 16), it was the flip of Karthiyani to ship an SOS within the WhatsApp group. Around eight elephants had been rampaging via her plantain backyard at Bathakumri on the banks of the Payaswini. “They destroyed around 20 ready-to-harvest plantain trees, two arecanut trees and two juvenile coconut trees,” she informed TNIE. The elephants entered her sister Sarojini’s adjoining property and broken the crops there.

Earlier, crackers used to scare the elephants away. “Now they stand there and enjoy it as if it is some temple festival,” mentioned Okay Suresh Babu of Muliyar.

But when irked, the elephants cost on the individuals bursting crackers. Two weeks in the past, Raveendran Chettathodu (43) had an in depth escape when an elephant slapped him with its trunk.

Raveendran, a civilian member of the Rapid Response Team (RRT), ended up in hospital with a damaged arm and needed to bear a surgical procedure.

Savithri Bhat, an aged farmer with round 10 acres of land at Katipallam close to Kanathur, shouldn’t be ready for the Karadka block panchayat’s hanging photo voltaic fence. She is fencing her property along with her personal cash. “It will cost us around Rs 3 lakh but we don’t have a choice. The elephants raid our property every other day,” she mentioned.

Elephants should not her solely drawback, The farmland alongside the Payaswini is frequented by wild boars and monkeys. “We have 350 coconut trees but we barely get any coconuts. All are taken away by the monkeys and the trees are felled by the elephants for the leaves,” she mentioned.

The elephants additionally destroy the irrigation pipes criss-crossing her property. “They know there is high-pressure water in the pipeline. So they break the pipe and stand astride to cool their belly,” mentioned Gopinathan Nair.

Around Rs 45,000 price of pipes and manpower is required to irrigate one acre, mentioned farmers. “If the land is not plain, the cost could rise to Rs 50,000. To lay the pipeline on 10 acres, we need around Rs 5 lakh. The elephants destroy them in one night,” mentioned Nair.

Protest march to DFO’s workplace on April 21

The Department of Forest — the implementing company for the 29km-long photo voltaic fence in Karadka block panchayat — mentioned on March 12 that the primary section of the work could be accomplished in a month. But on April 12, Kerala Police Housing & Construction Corp Ltd (KPHCCL), which is constructing the fence, simply began clearing the bottom and felling bushes for the undertaking, mentioned a undertaking engineer. He mentioned there was a delay in documentation. The 8km-long hanging photo voltaic fence from Vellakana to Chamakochi in Delampady panchayat (first section) could be accomplished by May 31, he mentioned.

Delampady, Karadka, Muliyar, Kuttikol and Bedadka gram panchayats and Karadka block panchayat pitched in to lift Rs 3.33 crore for the undertaking. “The department is showing scant respect for people’s lives, money or property. They should have stuck to the deadline,” mentioned Krishnaraj E B, a farmer in Chembilamka in Muliyar panchayat.

The least the Forest Department might do is push the elephants again into the primary, he mentioned. The Annakaryam (Elephantine Matter) Farmers Collective mentioned its members are going to take out a march to the Divisional Forest Office on April 21 to protest in opposition to the division’s ineptness in securing the lives and properties of farmers.