Relocate all 5 elephants, say villagers after tusker attack killed one in Sindhudurg’s Morle village

Kolhapur: Since an elephant trampled a farmer to death on Tuesday in Sindhudurg district's Morle village, residents of Dodamarg tehsil are demanding forest officials to relocate all five elephants active in the area.
Focus should not be merely on capturing the elephant, Omkar, that killed farmer Laxman Gavas, they argued. Gavan would be alive if forest personnel traced the elephants with thermal drones, they further said.
An eight-hour standoff between villagers and forest officials ensued after the elephant attack. Defusing the tension proved challenging for officials.
Morle sarpanch Mahadev Gavas said, "We villagers repeatedly informed the forest department about elephants entering Dodamarg tehsil. But if the department took immediate steps, this unfortunate incident would not have happened. There are five elephants in Dodamarg tehsil, and we want them all be trapped and relocated to an elephant taming centre in Karnataka." Besides Omkar. another family of four elephants, including two babies, is currently in the tehsil in Sindhudurg district.
Sindhudurg, which is part of the coastal Konkan region falls under the Kolhapur Forest circle and often witnesses conflicts with elephants.
Social activist Dr Jayendra Parulekar said, "The govt should implement an elephant trapping campaign immediately to relieve the frightened farmers. Tracing elephants with drones is not difficult anymore. In fact, trained elephants should have been long introduced in the district. Elephant capture drive is being successfully implemented in Karnataka, so why is this not possible in Maharashtra?"
Another activist Sandeep Sawant said, "The earning member of a family dies and a compensation of Rs25 lakh is given. This is a cruel joke. How many more deaths due to man-animal conflict do the govt and forest department want? Govt should provide at least one crore rupees to the family of the deceased farmer and his son should be given a govt job."
Speaking on this, deputy conservator of forest Navkishor Reddy said, "We can't say as of now when this campaign to capture the elephant will commence, as resources required need to arrive here. A trained elephant's help will be taken to capture the elephant responsible for the death of the farmer from Morle."