Wild elephants chased away from Suvarna Vidhana Soudha

Belgaum: Two elephants were spotted near the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha (SVS) at Halaga in the wee hours of Thursday but were pushed back into the forest after seven hours by the forest department and police personnel.
Halaga villagers saw the elephants around 6am and informed forest department officials. Around 45 forest personnel, including guards, rangers and assistant conservator of forest, as well as 15 police personnel started an operation around 9.30am to send the animals into the Gurlgunji forest in Khanapur taluk, around 24km from Halaga.
A huge crowd gathered around the elephants and many youths started clicking pictures. They also teased them by pelting stones. The enraged elephants tried to attack the youths. While running back, two youths and one police constable of Belgaum Rural police station got injured. Police personnel reached the spot around 9am and dispersed the crowd.
The operation was carried out through fields of villages like Bastwad, Dhamane, Yarmal, Yallur and Rajahansgad. Forest and police personnel chased the elephants by bursting crackers and beating drums. “We had guns gut didn’t use them,” said deputy conservator of forests Ambadi Madhav. The operation ended at 4.30pm with elephants moving deep into the forest.
According to forest department sources, the same elephants had been spotted on the outskirts of Khanapur town three days ago. On Wednesday, they reached Yarmal, near Belgaum, about 25km away. Sources added that large animals come out of the forest in search of food. Bamboo is a favourite food of elephants, and this has drastically decreased inside forests in the past 3-4 years. After tasting sugarcane and banana crops, they keep searching for them and this brings them closer to human habitat.
The DCF said it’s very unusual for wild elephants coming near Belgaum city. In 2009-10, one elephant came to Halaga and stayed in a small forest at KK Kopp village for 10 days. Forest department staff chased it away in a similar manner to the Gurlgunji forest, he said.