36-yr-old forest watcher killed by wild tusker in Mysuru

According to forest officers, the incident occurred when Swamy along with three others was chasing away a wild elephant inside the Nagarhole wildlife sanctuary.

A 36-year-old forest watcher on patrol was killed on Saturday night by a wild tusker at Metikuppe in HD Kote taluk in Karnataka’s Mysuru district, forest officers in the know of the matter said on Sunday.

The deceased has been identified as Mahadeva Swamy, a native of N Begur village in Mysuru, said a forest officer. (HT Photo)

The deceased has been identified as Mahadeva Swamy, a native of N Begur village in Mysuru, said a forest officer. He was working as a temporary watcher at the forest department for 10 years, said the officer.

According to forest officers, the incident occurred when Swamy along with three others was chasing away a wild elephant inside the Nagarhole wildlife sanctuary.

“A team of forest department personnel were trying to drive away wild elephants to the sanctuary. The elephant had seen the forest officials but they were unable to spot the animal. The elephant attacked the team from behind and trampled forest watcher Mahadeva Swamy,” Nagarhole wild life sanctuary deputy conservator of forests (DCF) Harsha Chikka Naragunda said.

Earlier, the villagers surrounding the sanctuary had complained to the forest department that since “it was the crop harvesting period, the wild elephants had been frequenting the human settlements during night and were destroying lakhs of rupees worth crops”. To prevent the entry of wild elephants into the villages, the forest officials had deployed the department staff inside the forest.

The presence of forest department staff might have enraged the elephant and it attacked the team, an official in the know of the matter said. “The elephants raid sugarcane fields during night as they are fond of it. When we attempt to chase them, naturally they become furious,”Naragunda said. “Elephants in a herd don’t normally attack humans, this is an exceptional case” he said, adding, that the department will identify the wild elephant which attacked the watcher and fix a radio collar on him to prevent crop and loss of human lives in the future.

Later, the DCF Harsha handed over ₹5 lakh compensation to the deceased’s kin. He said that the remaining ₹10 lakh will be paid to the family soon, and employment will be provided to a family member among other benefits.

The incident comes a day after wild elephants trampled a woman to death in Chikkabeechanahalli near Hunsuru on Friday.

The elephant had attacked the couple in Chikkabeechanahalli on Friday, killing Chikkamma (55) on the spot, forest officers said. The woman’s husband Nanjundaiah (57) managed to run from the spot and saved his life. The incident occurred when the couple were working in their ragi fields. Following the incident, the officials caught the rogue elephant on Friday and shifted it to Dubare elephant camp in Kodagu for taming.

The increased human-animal conflict has become a cause of concern in Mysuru district. Earlier, a leopard claimed two lives in the district in last month and the department managed to catch the big cat after 21 days of operation.

Following multiple protests over elephant attacks in Hassan district in November, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai constituted an elephant task force in Kodagu, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Mysuru district. The state government also increased the compensation for death caused due to elephant attack from ₹7.5 lakh to ₹15 lakh.