Wild elephants in Udupi leave trail of destruction
Udupi (PTI): Wild elephants have been roaming freely in deeply wooded plantations allegedly causing a trail of destruction in several pockets of Udupi district, officials said on Wednesday.
The pachyderms damaged areca, plantain and spice plantations in Nellikatte in the Nadpalu Grama Panchayat area in Hebri taluk of the district in the early hours of June 18 and 19, they said.
Forest Department officials have estimated that there could be two individual jumbos behind the incidents and said they are in hot pursuit of the animals.
According to the forest officials, the wild elephants have ravaged the plantations and have even uprooted the sprinkler and drip irrigation systems laid out in the estate owned by one Meena Poojarti in the village.
The villagers have expressed fear of carrying on with their daily routine; children are being prevented from going to school, and farm workers are staying put indoors. The villagers demanded that the animals be tranquilised and translocated into their natural habitats.
This is reportedly the first time that wild elephants have entered the human habitations in the taluk, although Hebri taluk is known for its forest cover.
According to officials, earlier it was leopard sightings in these villages that disturbed the people.
Historically, elephants have followed a predictable path from Sullia to Naravi, passing through Maala Ghat, Valikunja, Kabbinale, Thingalamakki, Thengumar, Kigga, Barkana, Mallandur, Agumbe, and Hosanagara. However, this year’s deviation into Nadpalu village on the foothills of the western ghats has baffled the forest officials and the people alike.
Range Forest official Gaurav has confirmed the presence of elephants and said the officials are tracking their movements, and that they will soon be restored to the wildlife sanctuary.
Efforts are on to ascertain whether the elephants are the same ones that roamed through Puttur and Sullia taluks in Dakshina Kannada district earlier last week, officials added.
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Sambhal violence orchestrated by BJP, govt to divert attention from poll rigging: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district over the survey of a mosque was "orchestrated" by the BJP, the government and the administration "to divert attention from electoral malpractice".
Police used tear gas and "minor force" in the face of stone pelting by locals in Sambhal on Sunday as tension escalated during a second survey of the Mughal-era mosque, claimed to be originally the site of an ancient Hindu temple.
Ten people have been detained and a probe was launched into the violence, an official said.
Tension has been brewing in Sambhal over the past few days after the Jama Masjid was surveyed last Tuesday on the orders of a local court following a petition that claimed that a Harihar temple stood at the site.
A day after the Uttar Pradesh bypoll results were declared and the Samajwadi Party managed to win just two seats while the BJP and its ally RLD bagged the other seven, Yadav levelled serious allegations against the police and administration.
"A serious incident occurred in Sambhal. A survey team was deliberately sent in the morning to disrupt discussions about the elections. The intention was to create chaos so that no debate on election issues could happen," the Samajwadi Party chief claimed.
Citing reports, he said several people were injured in the violence in Sambhal and asked when a survey of the mosque was already done, why was a new survey conducted again and "that too in the morning and without preparation?"
"I don't want to go into the legal or procedural aspects, but the other side was not even heard. This was intentionally done to provoke emotions and avoid discussions on election rigging," Yadav said.
"What happened in Sambhal was orchestrated by the BJP, the government and the administration to divert attention from electoral malpractices," the former UP chief minister alleged.
Asserting that in democracy, true victory comes from the people, not the system, he said, "The new democracy created by the BJP ensures that people cannot vote while the system dominates."
He added that whenever an impartial investigation takes place, and the truth comes out through booth recordings and CCTV footage, it will be evident that "voters did not cast their votes and someone else became the voter inside the booth".
Yadav claimed that on the polling day, the police and the administration removed the Samajwadi Party's almost all booth agents and many supporters who wanted to vote.
"If voters were prevented from voting, then who cast the votes? If Samajwadi Party votes didn't reach those booths and our candidate didn't get support, then who voted there? This is a serious issue," he said.
"Additionally, there were two types of slips, -- one with a red mark and another regular slip. We raised this issue on the voting day itself, stating that the administration had created such arrangements, leading to discrimination," Yadav alleged.
The Samajwadi Party's candidate for the Kundarki assembly bypoll Haji Rizwan too has alleged that his supporters were prevented from voting.
The BJP's Ramveer Singh won the bypoll in the Kundarki seat by a margin of over 1.45 lakh votes.
