BANGALORE, June 22: At least six elephants have reportedly been killed over the last year in the Somanahalli belt of Karnataka, not only by poachers but also by farmers who see none but this drastic option of putting an end to maurauding by the pachyderms. The elephants are electrocuted by illegal, charged fencing, and later deprived of their tusks. While farmers say that their pleas for help from the Forest Department to check the elephant menace have fallen on deaf ears, the department officials say they have been compensating farmers for crop damage.

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