GREEN MINUTE NEWS:
March 2nd incident of a capture of a tuskless Makhna elephant in Channapatna, Bengaluru South district, Karnataka will go down in wildlife history as one of the most brutal operations ever done in the last 56 years in India. The last Khedda (trapping of wild elephants) operations was done in India during 1970-71 in the Kakanakhote forests near Kabini Rive, Mysuru district after the formulation of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
The Channapatna Elephant Capture was neither a conservation solution nor addressed the escalating human-elephant conflicts in Karnataka. In fact, it was a grotesque spectacle of unbearable cruelty inflicted on a mute animal that left the gentle giant with brutal injuries to its trunk from repeated jabs from a monstrous JCB. This was followed by violent shoving of its sedated body into a truck like a discarded piece of trash. We Indians consider elephants as our national animal and worship it in the form of Lord Ganesha and not dump it so cruelly.
This isn’t an isolated incident or blunder in Karnataka; it’s the latest in a blood-soaked saga where Karnataka Forest Department operations prioritize expediency over ethics, traumatizing free-ranging gentle giants be it elephants, tigers or gaurs under the guise of conflict resolution.
Savage Mechanics of the Horror
Many eyewitness accounts and also the viral footage of (available in the public domain) the Channapatna capture operations demonstrate the horror committed by the wildlife managers of the Karnataka Forest Department. In fact, a powerful JCB is meant for earth-moving or massive diggings in infrastructure projects and not used so indiscriminately for animal handlings.
But on March 2nd, this monstrous machine was used to deliver repeated, forceful prods to the elephant’s sensitive snout. Now how should the JCB operator know that the elephant’s snout is its lifeline for breathing, feeding, and social bonding. Despite Kumki (trained) elephants requisitioned from Dubare Elephant Camp and tranquilizer darts, forest officials resorted to using this huge machinery to capture the poor elephant. This was in the aftermath of farmers’ protests over crop raids and not human killings near Kempikatte Kere in Channapatna taluk.
What was the Horrific result?
A majestic Makhna, already stressed from human encroachments and disappearance of its habitat and corridors, now desperately fights for recovery facing an uncertain fate and captive future.
Now its injuries (which can be clearly seen in the photos) are a testament to reckless improvisation by the Karnataka Forest Department in handling conflict situation that in fact, openly mocks SOPs and guidelines given by MoEFCC time and again.
A Trail of Death and Debacle Last 13 years
Karnataka’s “Operation Jumbo” has captured 106 elephants since 2013, but the jumbo body count tells the real and different story.
- At least three elephants perished during 2023 captures operations alone, including the Kumki Arjuna in Hassan, where autopsy has conveniently delayed the buried evidence of negligence.
- In 2023-24, unnatural deaths spiked to 14 amid 101 total elephant fatalities, many tied to botched captures, translocations, electrocutions, poisonings, fruit blasts, kraal beatings, and post-capture stress.
- The Channapatna elephant capture operations echoe Kerala’s Wayanad recaptures where elephants simply dropped dead from exhaustion and abuse.
Are We going back to the Khedda Era?
Kraals, these medieval enclosures meant for captured elephants and calves, inflict physical lashes, torturous pushing and psychological torment, turning wild spirits into broken shells by their so-called caretakers, caregivers and protectors.
This cocktail of insensitivity shown by the Karnataka Forest Department and the Karnataka government has cost us one too many elephants – 294 deaths reported statewide by late 2024. Added to these numbers, frequent captures (some botched up operations) have been fuelling the fire of elephant deaths.
Open Violation of Standard Protocols
Project Elephant’s own Recommended Operating Procedure explicitly limits JCBs to peripheral tasks like path-clearing, demanding Kumki-led immobilization and zero direct machinery contact to avoid trauma to the conflict jumbos.
Yet here we are, with the Karnataka Forest Department flouting these SOPs time and again, as animal rights bodies have long screamed: “unscientific and ineffective,” urging an end to wildlife captures in favour of protection of habitat and corridors and early warnings to people living in forest fringe areas.
The Karnataka High Court has probed Section 11 permissions under Wildlife Protection Act, but accountability evaporates as who investigates the investigators when farmers bay for blood of the innocent and mute jumbos or any other conflict wildlife?
Section 11 authorizes the Chief Wildlife Warden to permit hunting or culling of specific wild animals if they are dangerous to human life/property, or disabled/diseased beyond recovery. This applies to Schedules I, II, III, and IV, requiring written orders, justifications, and minimal trauma during action. But are they actually followed to the teeth?
No More Excuses: Heads Must Roll
For the Channapatna elephant capture horror show, nobody can be forgiven. As per Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre directions all the guidelines should have been followed but the operation’s overseers, and the Project Elephant’s chief seems to have forgotten all the guidelines given by the MoEFCC.
All must face severe reprimands, mandatory injury audits, and suspensions of officials for every JCB-wielding in charge. They are responsible for the elephant’s unbearable injuries to its trunk, its sensitive snout followed by irreparable mental trauma.
Now Shift now to science?
Over the years, installation of railway barricades, solar tentacle fencing, community compensation, and reversing deforestation have driven these “conflicts.” Karnataka is haemorrhaging its own elephant population to callousness; show mercy before the last wild heart stops for ever. Our persecuted gentle giants demand justice, not more and more graves.
Elephant, our national animal and a Schedule-1 protected species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 has been treated worse than a hazardous waste matter. The Channapatna elephant – just a crop raider was captured (without a thought) – is a Makhna. This is a male Asian elephant which lacks tusks or has only very small, rudimentary tushes and is found only in India and Sri Lanka.
Capture of elephants has become very common in Karnataka which has the highest population of 6399 elephants (just a static statistic since the last census) in the country. Further, India is home to 60 percent of world’s population of wild elephants and has formulated the best conservation and protection strategies in the world under the WPA. But alas! Day in and day out, wild elephants are being captured as a short-term solution to address conflicts sans SOPs and guidelines.
By this time at least, Karnataka’s successive governments should have realized that capturing wild elephants will not solve the problem in the long-term. In fact, focus should be on immediate stoppage of diversion of forest lands, habitat and elephant corridor restoration and protection and not building tunnel roads and sinking forests for hydro projects.