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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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
