BANGALORE: Incidents of wild elephants straying into human habitats in Hassan district might come down as the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has given a green signal to the state forest department to relocate about 25 elephants from Alur and Sakleshpur forest ranges in Hassan district to the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.Prakriti Srivastava, DIG (Wildlife), MoEF through a circular issued on Friday granted permission to the state’s proposal which was pending for months.However, the MoEF has asked the state to follow certain guidelines while relocating the jumbos.According to the guidelines, the elephants should be shifted family-wise, and also permission has been granted for radio collaring of one female leader elephant.Once the first herd of elephants is relocated, its movement should be monitored strictly for three months and only then the next herd should be shifted. Care should be taken that young ones are not isolated from the herd while shifting.Following immense pressure from locals due to rising elephant menace, the state Forest Department had sent a request along with the suggestion to the MoEF a few months ago.A senior forest official told Express, “Since April 2011, the state Forest Department has paid Rs 4 crore as compensation for crop damage, including Rs 38 lakh in Hassan district alone.”“Besides, as many as 11 human lives were lost in elephant attacks, of which one was in Hassan district. The situation was worse in 2010 where six people died due to elephant attacks in Hassan. In addition to human lives, 36 elephants were killed since April 2011. Three elephants died due to electrocution, one fell to bullets, and the rest were natural deaths,” he added.According to records from the state Forest Department, as many as 14 people and 15 elephants had died since 2007 in Hassan district alone. Meanwhile, forest officials are already in Hassan district identifying elephants family wise. There are likely to be around 4-5 families, said the forest official.
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