A village amidst the forest

Bannerghatta Nation Park (BNP) is a highly fragmented forest lying adjacent to the Bangalore metropolis. According to Avinash Krishnan, the senior researcher at Arocha, the Bannerghatta National Park is largely absent from the collective consciousness of the people of Bangalore. Leaving what he describes as the ‘forgotten forest’, and it’s creatures to it’s inevitable state of conflict. With the rising pressure from human population and development in the region, conflict with the wild elephants living here has been escalating over the years. This year was the hardest. The elephants don’t care for the pandemic, nor do they stop for a lockdown. As they continued to mow down crops and raid crops of sustenance farmers, the forest department found themselves in the difficult position of not being able to feed their own staff to carry out the job at hand.