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Harish Poonja, a BJP MLA from Karnataka’s Belthangady constituency, made a request on the Legislative Assembly floor. Poonja sought permission from the government to shoot at wild elephants that entered farming land and destroyed crops.
Discussing the challenges faced by farmers due to wild elephants destroying their crops, Poonja said: “Give a chance to the farmers… We will shoot the elephants with bullets. This is the opinion of farmers as they are unable to sleep due to the elephant menace. We need a permanent solution to this chaos.”
His comment and request, however, did not go down well with the other members of the assembly. Shocked by the MLA’s remarks, state forest minister Eshwar Khandre asked him not to make such comments. Khandre then schooled him about how laws function. “You are a people’s representative. You shouldn’t make such remarks. It’s very unfortunate. There is a law and as an MLA you have to make people understand what that law is,” Khandre told Poonja regarding the farmers’ request.
Karnataka Assembly Speaker UT Khader, too, was not impressed by Poonja’s comment. He said that animals had as much right to live on earth as humans. “Killing them isn’t the solution,” Khader responded to the BJP MLA’s request.
While the MLA’s request might have seemed cruel, elephant attacks in Karnataka were getting more frequent.
On December 9, a wild elephant aggressively chased a forest department jeep in Hassan district. The incident occurred after the elephant, reportedly separated from its herd, exhibited signs of distress.
In March, two farmers, employed on a betelnut estate in Hassan, narrowly escaped attack by a wild tusker. Two farmers, employed at a betelnut estate, narrowly escaped an elephant attack. The incident took place on March 3 in the district’s Kesguli village. The video of the incident was widely shared across social media.
Earlier in February, an elephant chased after two tourists in Bandipur National Park and Tiger Reserve near Muthunga in Chamarajanagar district. The tourists, travelling from Karnataka to Kerala, were chased by the elephant after they tried to take a selfie with it.
