The Forest Department of the West Bengal Government has approached the Supreme Court for the necessary direction to initiate a programme of population control of elephants in the state. Recently, in many districts, people are facing the menace of elephant attacks almost on a regular basis. It is also learnt that the Kerala government is also facing the same problem of an increased elephant population and is also approaching the apex court for necessary guidelines. Earlier, there was a restriction on shifting rogue elephants from one district to another. Recently, the state government got clearance from the union government to transfer the rogue elephants from one district to another by using tranquilizer. In the Midnapore district of West Bengal, recently, elephant entered the villages and destroyed the crop and killed one woman who tried to stop them. A powerful tranquillizer was used to put more than seven elephants to sleep, and they were relocated to far flung areas of West Bengal. The state government is now planning to perform vasectomies on the elephants in order to control the birth rate. And for this, they need direction from the apex court. It had become a major political issue in the state prior to the ensuing panchayat poll.
