Intensified efforts on to drive away jumbos near IT zone

Forest officials today intensified their efforts to drive away a herd of wild elephants, camping a few kilometres away from Electronics City, home to many IT and BT companies.
A herd of 14 elephants which entered from Tamil Nadu were camping at Dommasandra, a few kilometres from Electronics City, Bangalore Rural Superintendent of Police Prakash said.
All precautionary measures have been taken to prevent the elephants straying into the city limits. "There is every chance of the elephants doing it," Forest official Rangegowda said.
The forest officials, since morning have been making intermittent attempts to drive the elephants into the nearby forests, but to no avail.

"We succeeded in driving the elephants four kilometres away from Huskurkere, where they were camping. But they returned to the same location as villagers erected makeshift barricades to prevent them entering their villages," he said.
He said trained elephants used during the Dasara festival in Mysore would be brought to guide the wild elephants into the forest area. "We have also made arrangements for tranquilising the wild elephants in case of any untoward incident," Rangegowda said.

SP Prakash said a trained elephant from Bannerghatta National Park near Bangalore has been pressed into service.
Earlier in the day, the elephants attacked Dommasandra villagers injuring two of them, one of them seriously.

The injured was admitted to a local hospital where the condition of one of them was stated to be serious.
The incident comes a day after a journalist of a Kannada daily was killed by an elephant when he went too close to it to take a photograph at Orohallikere village in Hoskote taluk and three persons were trampled to death by a herd of pachyderms on Saturday at Kanivehalli in Kolar district.
Assistant Conservator of Forests Puttanna said elephants had been causing a lot of damage to life and property in the last six months in Bangarpet and Malur areas of Kolar district.

Five people have been trampled to death in as many months by elephants, which have been moving into Karnataka from Tamil Nadu in search of food and water.