Jumbos stray in Bangalore; traffic jam on IT corridor

The man-elephant conflict has now entered Bangalore, with a herd of elephants that killed four people in the last four days in Malur and Hoskote talukas straying into Bangalore on Monday bringing traffic to a halt for several hours on the busy Hosur road that leads to the IT hub, Electronic City.

The forest department and police officials launched an intensive operation on Monday night to drive them to Bannerghatta national park, but with little success.

As the police stopped the movement of vehicles on Hosur Road on Monday night to facilitate the herd of of elephants cross the road on their way to Bannerghatta forest, it led to a traffic jam lasting for a couple of hours, with the pile-up of thousands of vehicles extending to five km on the busy IT corridor.

To head the elephants away from human habitation, the forest department officials had to bring in tamed jumbos used in Dasara procession in Mysore - Srirama and Gajendra.

More than 100 employees from three forest ranges - KR Puram, Kaggalipura and Bannerghatta - were deployed to ensure that the herd of elephants entered Bannerghatta forest without causing much damage to public property. Around 100 police personnel joined the forest department officials to control the curious crowd.

M Manjunath, photo journalists of a Kannada daily, was killed by an elphant when he tried to get close to the herd to get a picture on Sunday.The herd of elephants had made its way to Horohalli tank in Jadigenahalli hobli (Hoskote taluk) on Sunday. The incident took place when the people tried to chase the elephants and photograph them with their cell phones.

On Saturday, the herd of elephants killed Chikkamuniyappa, Ramakrishnappa and Chandrappa in Malur taluk.