K’taka: 7 arrested for assaulting forest officers after elephant’s capture

Dakshina Kannada, Feb 25 (IANS) Seven people were arrested in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district for assaulting forest officers following the capture of a wild elephant that had earlier killed two people, police said on Saturday.

In the incident that took place on Thursday night, the residents of the region also damaged official vehicles and demanded the continuation of operation to catch all the wild elephants in the area.

The forest officers caught the elephant near Mujuru reserved forests after three days of operation.

As the he authorities were celebrating their success at capturing the wild tusker, the villagers demanded them to stay back and catch the other trouble-making elephants in the area.

Following an argument between the two sides, the villagers then started pelting stones at the officers and also tried to assault them.

Two police vehicles, one jeep attached to the forest department and a vehicle belonging to a forest official were damaged.

Meanwhile, the seven arrested persons were produced before a court and handed over to judicial custody.

Authorities have halted the operation to catch elephants and maintained that it would only resume after directions from the higher ups.

–IANS

mka/ksk/