The family members of H.H. Venkatesh, an expert in firing tranquillizer darts in elephant capture operations, have blamed the negligence of senior officers of the Forest Department for his death following the elephant attack. Venkatesh, 67, died after he was attacked by a tusker near Rayara Koplu in Alur taluk on Thursday, August 31.
Venkatesh’s son Mohith filed a complaint with Alur Police the same day, alleging that officers of the department, including the Deputy Conservator of Forests and Range Forest Officer, were responsible for his death.
Before filing the complaint, he took the officers to task and questioned their negligence. He wanted to know from senior officers why his father (Venkatesh) was called for duty at this age. “He is now 67. He has already served the department all these years and faced many critical situations. If you had asked him not to come to work, he would have survived today,” Mohith told the officers. The family members had often appealed to him to stop working for the department. However, he did not listen to them.
Mohith recalled that earlier, his father was taken to Ramanagara and also to Odisha to be part of elephant capturing operations. “Is it not a failure on the part of the department for not having trained any other person to replace him? There are many advanced technologies available to track elephants and capture them. How can you expect a 67-year-old person to run behind wild elephants and fire darts,” he asked. The officers had no answers.
Based on his complaint, Alur Police have registered the complaint under Section 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC. Mr. Gangadhar, Alur CPI, said that the complaint had been registered against the officers of the Forest Department. It would be probed.
Mr. Venkatesh, a native of Alur taluk, worked as a forest watcher and continued to serve the department after his retirement as an outsourced employee. He actively participated in elephant capture operations. The department had launched an operation to capture a wild elephant, locally identified as Bhima, as it required treatment for the injuries it suffered in a fight with other elephants. The tusker attacked Venkatesh after he had fired the dart. He succumbed to his injuries later. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
