Villagers panic as five jumbos camp at sugarcane fields

MYSURU: Villagers of Basapura in HD Kote taluk panicked as five el2ephants camped in a sugarcane field on Tuesday.The pachyderms, believed to have strayed into the farmland from Bandipur Forest, destroyed sugarcane in more than three acres belonging to farmers Nagraj, Sowmya and Nagamma. 
Range Forest Officer (N-Begur range) H M Shivkumar told Express that the elephants came to the sugarcane field on Monday late night. 

The operation to drive away the elephants became difficult as more than 500 villagers gathered at the spot and the panicked elephants were in the middle of the sugarcane field, he said. 
He added that elephants have a tendency to go back to forests in the evening.
Armed with guns and firecrackers, 80 men from four forest ranges were on the spot to try and drive away the jumbos. Shivkumar said the forest department will compensate the crop damage caused by the elephants “within 15 days”.

Villager injured
Villagers climbed trees to watch the chase-elephants operation. Maraiah, a farmer who was sitting on a tree, suffered minor injuries, when a forest official fired a shot in the air to scare the elephants.
Leopard found dead 
Mysuru: A male leopard was found dead at Arabithittu Wildlife Sanctuary on Tuesday morning. Deputy Conservator of Forests V Yedukundala told Express that the seven-year-old male leopard’s canine, teeth, skin and claws were intact. “After postmortem, it was confirmed that it died naturally,” he added. 
The leopard was buried in the sanctuary. The DCF said leopards can live up to 15 years, but in the wild, they usually live up to only around eight years.