— Vidya Shankara SomayajiALMANAC WEATHER TIMES CITY

MEET | SUSTAINABILITY DRINKS BANGALORE — EDITION VI: The theme is rainwater harvesting and thought leaders from the space will share stories and insights into how you can make the monsoon count. The Humming Tree, Indiranagar, 6.45pm

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DIARYART | UNDER A SPELL: The current exhibition features works by architect-turned-artist Parbboni. A self-taught artist whose style features bold brush strokes, the series features a mix of animal paintings and abstracts. Sublime Galleria, UB City, 11am

PHOTOGRAPHY | WASWO X WASWO, PHOTOWALLAH: This series presents a survey of Waswo’s studio classic portraits, hand-coloured by collaborator Rajesh Soni, through his work produced in his studio in Udaipur – including prints from his previous series, A Studio in Rajasthan, Gauri Dancers and New Myths. Tasveer, 11am

EXHIBITION | ANJALI V: In the third exhibition under Young Talent 2017, the artist in focus is Anjali V. Drawing in black and white, she uses light, precise, sharp movements to create her anthropomorphic forms. Alliance Francaise, Vasanthnagar, 11am

THEATRE | MAAVINA GUDI COLONY: Some friends harried by life plan to meet at the colony, where they spent their childhood. As the name itself suggests, a mango tree is the focal point and it is now on the verge of being destroyed in the name of development. Ranga Shankara, 7.30pm

9-5-2017 | Maximum: 35.8, Minimum: 23.2, Rainfall: Nil, Humidity: 58%, Sunrise (Wednesday) 5.56am, Sunset (Tuesday) 6.36pm,

Moonrise (Tuesday) 4.43pm, Moonset (Wednesday) 4.12am. Forecast: Part-ly cloudy sky. Rain/thundershowers expected in the evening. Maximum and

minimum temperature will be around 36 and 23 degrees celsius.

9-5-2017 | Mesha Masa 26 – Sri Hemalamba Nama Samvatsara – Uttarayana – Vasanta Ritu Tithi: Vaishakha Sukla Chaturdasi Hr. 25-07 Nak: Chitra Hr. 12-01 Yoga: Siddhi (Asrik) Hr. 15-34. 12 Shaban, Kali Day 1869417. Rabindranath Tagore’s birthdayRahu Kalam: 3pm to 4.30pm

THE TIMES OF INDIA, BENGALURU | TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2017

Elephants claim 105 lives in 2 years; no solution in sight Rohith.BR @timesgroup.com

Bengaluru: A day after a wild elephant trampled two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) perssonel – assistant sub inspector H Dakshina Murthy and constable Put-tappa Lamani — to death in a CRPF camp at Taralu village in south Bengaluru, forest of-ficers attached to the Kaggali-pura Range found that the tusker had entered the Ban-nerghata National Park after jumping over a 7ft-high rail-way barrier.

Kaggalipura range forest officer Varun Kumar SV told TOI, “It appears as if the tusker entered the CRPF camp on road after crossing a forest checkpost. It could have lost its way, and entered the camp in search of water and food. It has now found its way into the forest by crossing the railway barrier erected along the forest bor-der. In fact, the barrier is meant to prevent elephants from leaving the forest. But this elephant appears to have learnt how to scale the

barrier – it used a boulder to climb and jumped over.”

Foresters are now tracing the footprints of the wild tusker to see where it’s head-ed. Queried about plans to raise the height of the bar-rier, in view of other in-stances of jumbos straying into human habitats in Ban-nerghata and Nagarahole, Varun said, “We’ve cleared bushes and rocks near the barrier so they don’t cross over again. There are only a few vulnerable points along the length of the barrier that need to be fixed.”

A senior forest depart-ment official said that they had not received any instruc-tions to capture the elephant. “The elephant is back in the forest now. We will track its movements. But, we have no plans of capturing it for now,” she added.

Another senior forest official said that the depart-ment had collected details of the family members of the two CRPF men. “Compensa-tion will be paid to them soon,” he said.

Tusker leaps over fence to enter forest

Jumbos Straying Into Human

Habitat In Search Of Food, WaterManuAiyappa.Kanathanda

@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru: Scarcity of fodder and water in forests – a conse-quence of consecutive droughts – has resulted in in-creasing cases of human-ele-phant conflict in the state in the past three years. On aver-age, nearly 35 people have been killed every year by elephants in the state in the past three years, which is nearly twice as many killed in such conflicts in the preceding years.

Data from the Karnataka forest department shows that while human-elephant conflicts account for the death of around 10 to 15 wild tuskers every year, on average, natural causes claim more elephant lives.

According to a forest de-partment report, 105 people have died in human-elephant conflicts between March 2015 and May 7, 2017, and the gov-ernment has paid Rs 5.20 crore in compensation to the fami-lies of these victims. While compensation paid to the fam-ily members of those killed in such conflicts was increased from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh about three years ago, the amount paid by the govern-ment in cases of permanent incapacitation is Rs 2 lakh, and Rs 30,000 for grievous injuries.

Kodagu has registered the highest number of human casualties due to elephant at-tacks in the two-year period (21), followed by Tumakuru, Hassan, Ramanagara, Bengal-

uru Urban and Chamarajana-gara – all of which have regis-tered eight human casualties.

In addition to this, crops in 300 hectares of agricultural land have been damaged by tuskers in this period.

Pointing to the rise in both human and elephant popula-tion, assistant conservator of forests (wildlife) C Jayaram said, “It’s misleading to con-clude that cases of human-elephant conflicts are on the rise. The government has taken several measures, in-cluding digging trenches, set-ting up solar-powered fences and rail fencing, to prevent such incidents.

He added, “These have helped limit the occasions of wild animals straying into hu-man habitats. The system is not foolproof, and there will be stray incidents such as the one

we witnessed in Bannerghatta on Sunday.”

Wildlife experts, however, point out that the forest depart-ment’s initiatives to keep ele-phants at bay have not yielded desires results. “These animals are straying into human habi-tat in search of food and water, which have turned scarce be-cause of drought, forest fires and urbanisation. We need to adopt a multi-pronged ap-proach to solve the problem. Management of forest and wildlife falls under the purview of the state government,” said SN Girish, a wildlife activist.

The state government has proposed a three-tier system — trenches, electric fencing and a concrete wall — to pre-vent elephants from straying into villages and other hu-man habitats contiguous with wildlife habitats. How-ever, the proposal has stayed on paper, owing to lack of funds, said Jayaram.

HIGH JUMP: Forest officials say the wild elephant managed to jump over this 7ft-high fence to enter Bannerghatta National Park

Forest division Number of fatalities

Bannerghatta 11

Ramanagara 8

Chamarajanagara (Cauvery) 8

Bandipur (Mysuru) 7

Hunsur (Mysuru) 4

Hassan 8

Tumakuru 8

Kodagu (Madikeri and Virajpet divisions) 21

Bhadravathi (Shivamogga) 4

21 DEATHS IN KODAGU BETWEEN MARCH 2015

AND MAY 2017

AWAY FROM HOME: Wildlife experts attribute the rise in human-elephant conflicts to to urbanization and encroachment of forest land

MYOPIC LAND USEPOLICY TO BLAME

Minimizing conflicts requires site-specific knowledge. Conflicts

that we are seeing today are primarily the result of a myopic land use policy. Large swathes of the elephants’ natural habitat have either been fragmented or lost to agricultural expansion, and. indiscriminate regularization of encroachments. While there is no magical solution, conflicts can be minimized through a series of measures, which should include reducing fragmentation and notifying eco-sensitive zonesPRAVEEN BHARGAV |FORMER MEMBER, NATIONALBOARD FOR WILDLIFE

Source: Karnataka forest department

Pics: TOI

Karnataka Forest Department

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru: Cops are in hotpursuit of the former tenantof a ground-floor house inGandhinagar, Kengeri,where a decomposed bodywas found stuffed inside awardrobe.

The postmortem con-ducted on the body on Mon-day has given ammunition topolice suspicion that thebody belonged to the tenant’sgrandmother.

According to DCP (West)MN Anucheth, the autopsyreport said the murdermight have taken place atleast three months earlier,and the body belonged to anolder woman.

Sanjay, 25, an engineeringstudent, lived in the housewith his mother Shashikalaand grandmother ShanthaKumari. The family van-ished in early February. San-jay had told the landlord thathe was also working with arealty firm.

The landlord, Naveen,opened the doors on Sunday,the day the tenancy agree-ment was to lapse. He foundsomething suspicious in thefreshly painted wardrobe,and signs of plastering workin an attempt to seal the war-drobe. He alerted police, whobroke open the door andfound the decomposed body.

“The suspicion that thevictim was Sanjay’s grand-mother was based on thestatement of the landlord,who said he hadn’t seen theolder woman in a long time.However, with forensic evi-dence suggesting the agegroup of the grandmother,

the case against the suspectis getting stronger,” the DCP said.

The autopsy, however, hasnot revealed the cause ofdeath. The DCP said thatmore tests will have to be con-ducted to find this out. Ascer-taining the motive of themurder is a tough task as theinvestigation is still in theearly stages, he added.

The teams investigatingthe case are trying to trackthe suspect, but are yet toland any actionable evi-dence. Sanjay had left someaddresses and phone num-bers with the owner, but theyturned out to be false.

Even the real estate com-pany he was said to be work-ing for turned out to be a non-existential one.

Talking about the evi-dence in the house, the offi-cer said the occupants of thehouse appeared to have left ina hurry. “They have left be-hind several documents, in-cluding Sanjay’s markscards. We are trying to trackthem based on these papers,”said the officer.

Wardrobe murdervictim could

be grandmother

SPOOKY AFFAIR: Police say thesuspect seems to have fled in a hurry,leaving behind his markscards

TOI

AUTOPSY REPORT

Bengaluru: It all started onSeptember 12, 1948, with 120buses, each of which had adriver’s cabin accommodat-ing the engine and tuggingalong a passenger coa-ch.The Mysore GovernmentRoad Transport Depart-ment, as it was called then,has now grown into the Kar-nataka State Road Trans-port Corporation (KSRTC).

The momentous journeyis marked by 194 awards asits milestones, with the icingon the cake being its entryinto the Limca Book of Re-cords earlier this year. Theonly road transport under-taking in the country to haveachieved the distinction,KSRTC has won the laurel inview of the 107 internationaland national awards andrecognitions it earned forunique initiatives and goodpractices from 2008 to 2016.

The corporation todayhas 8,348 buses in its fleet,the second highest in thecountry and ferries 26.18lakh people per day. It has a34,019 member-strong man-power, of which 32,000 aredrivers, driver-cum-conduc-tors, conductors and me-chanics. Senior officials andbus crew members admitthe rapid growth story hasbeen possible because thecompany hasn’t measuredits growth with high reve-nue, but inclusive growth ofits crew and passengers.

Chikke Gowda, a driver-instructor with KSRTC,started his career as a driverin 1986 with a basic salary ofRs 235 that has now touchedRs 34,160. “I drove on the

Bengaluru to Madurai route(464km one way) for 16 years.I used to drive to Maduraiand return, covering 928kmand do two trips a week.Whenever I returned to Ben-galuru, I would visit my fam-ily and could spend timewith my kids only twice aweek. I started sufferingfrom diabetes and used tofeel unwell while driving atnight. When I told the man-agement, they found a solu-tion,” he says.

Chikke Gowda was notonly accommodated on dayshifts but also promoted as adriver-instructor. His pieceof advice to drivers: “Keep

two things in mind. All pas-sengers trust you to drivethem safely to their destina-tions. Secondly, your familytoo is waiting for you.”

Says Ganesh Rao, 52,who joined as an inter-statebus driver in 1987: “We usedto drive buses that weren’tcomfortable, neither werethey well-equipped. Thenew buses have many safe-ty features which make usfeel relaxed, ensure ourtrips adhere to the timeline,and provide passengers ut-most comfort and safety.The corporation recogniz-es our efforts periodicallyby giving away awards tothose who have had no acci-dents or less number of acci-dents,” says Rao.

The story behindKSRTC’s recordjourney since ’48

Aparajita.Ray@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru: Bengaluru Ruralpolice are yet to produce Hamsa,who shot her husband followingan argument on May 5, in court.

Police said she was taken tohospital as she was injured inthe incident as well. She was ear-lier admitted to Oxford MedicalCollege and subsequently trans-ferred to Sparsh Hospital,where her husband, Sai Ram, isalso undergoing treatment.

On May 5, in the middle of bu-sy Hosur Road, Hamsa had shother husband in his stomachfrom point-blank range. Policesaid that an argument over theirdaughter’s marriage was thereason behind the shooting.

The couple was driving to-wards Bengaluru from Hosur.

Sai Ram continues to be onlife support, but is showing sig-nificant improvement, hospitalauthorities told police. TNN

Hamsa yet to betaken to court

Bengaluru: A BMTC driv-er sustained grievous inju-ries after nearly six peopleassaulted him for refusingto give way for their carnear Avalahalli Circle nearBanashankari in SiuthBengaluru in the forenoonon Monday.

Driver of bus number213, Shahshidhar reported-ly refused to make room fora car that was driving be-hind the vehicle. The carsubsequently overtook thebus, forcing it to pull over.The six men riding in the cargot out, and forced their wayinto the bus. They assaultedthe bus conductor Mahesh,before setting on Shashid-har, who was pushed out ofthe vehicle. TNN

BMTC driverthrashed for

not giving way

KSRTC’s approach to the jobon hand has evolved into aholistic strategy. It organizesdriver trainings, inductsbetter-quality buses wherethe driver’s comfort is asimportant as that ofpassengers and arranges fordriver resting facilities even inthe neighbouring states. It hasautomated the rota ofattendance, duty schedulesand leaves for drivers andconductors, keeping in mid

seniority of service. KSRTC’s emphasis on

technology has resulted in theCorporation being the first inthe country to embrace theIntelligent Transport System(ITS) in Mysuru. Its marketingstrategies and brandinginitiatives like ‘Sleep like ababy’ campaign for its Airavatafleet have only gained itgreater market share. Nowonder the KSRTC has won theaward of excellence by theministry of urban developmentfor a record six times in a row.

Holistic approach