Safely drive elephants back into forest: Pawan

Mangalagiri: Deputy Chief Minister and Forest and Environment Minister Pawan Kalyan has directed officials to take immediate steps to safely drive an elephant herd roaming near Padiputlabailu in Chittoor district back into the forest.

He instructed officials to bring Kumki elephants from Musalamadugu camp and launch an operation to divert the elephants into the forest. He also directed authorities to maintain continuous surveillance of elephant movements through coordinated efforts involving Hanuman teams, police, revenue and electricity departments.

Pawan Kalyan reviewed elephant movement near Padiputlabailu with Forest Department officials on Monday and stressed the need to take all precautionary measures to ensure public safety and prevent human-elephant conflicts in surrounding villages.

For the past 15 days, a herd of 11 elephants, along with two elephants that had separated from the herd, has been moving around Padiputlabailu panchayat area. Farmers have expressed concern over damage caused to agricultural crops in Pundlavallapalli, Nadimpalli and Kondakindapalli villages.

Officials informed the Deputy Chief Minister that, according to the latest information, one elephant herd had crossed the road and entered Mangalamapeta beat, while two other elephants had also crossed the road and were moving towards Chittoor. Their movement could pose a potential threat to people in Pakala, Pulicherla and Chandragiri mandals, they said.

Pawan Kalyan directed field-level teams to continuously monitor elephants’ movements and alert people in villages that could be at risk. He stressed that residents should be alerted based on the movement of the elephants and that all possible precautions should be taken to prevent casualties. He also instructed officials to make arrangements for immediate compensation to farmers, who suffered crop losses due to elephant movement.

The Deputy CM emphasised that all departments should work in coordination to ensure public safety, protect agricultural crops, prevent human-elephant conflicts and conserve wildlife.

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