JOIN USWorkers protested against negligent attitude of forest department towards wild elephant menace, boycotted work and formed a human chain in Siddapur on Thursday.
The workers took out a protest rally and formed a human chain at City Bus stand. They shouted slogans against the forest department and urged to free them from wild elephant menace.
Staging a protest at the bus stand, they urged for the visit of forest department officials to the place of protest and listen to their vows. They said that are fed up by the menace and some of them even have lost their family members and bread winners. Vendors in the city closed the shops for an hour, in support of the protest.
CITU Kodagu District Unit President Dr I R Durgaprasad alleged that even though the wild elephant menace is on rise in the district, the government has not found a permanent solution and is playing with the lives of the people.
The protestors submitted a memorandum to Zonal forest conservatory officer Devaiah, who visited the place of protest in the afternoon. Though a report has been submitted by experts, towards providing fodder to wild elephants in forests, the government has not initiated any step in this regard, the protestors alleged. Gram Panchayat employees association district president P R Bharat said that the central government is issuing orders in the name of environment conservation, which are detrimental to the lives of rural population.
On the other hand, it is offering a red carpet welcome to the entrepreneurs to invest in the country. The government should clear its stand, he urged.
The demands included provision of Rs 15 lakh compensation to the family of the victims of elephant menace, compensation of Rs five lakh to the persons who have been handicapped due to elephant menace, deploying of gunmen in plantations, arrangement for vehicles for the children of workers, to ferry them from home to school and vice versa and increase in the compensation to the owners of coffee plantations, who have been incurring loss due to wild elephant attack.
Man attacked
When protesters were returning home, one of them, identified as Ramesh (33), native of West Bengal and worker at BBTC, was attacked by a wild elephant at B T Kadur in Siddapur. He has suffered serious injuries on his head and chest. He has been admitted at K R Hospital and his condition is said to be critical.