South India's human-elephant conflicts

Across South India, changes to landscape fragment traditional elephant habitats.

Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are now brought under a 5 year regional action plan, with an outlay of 999.87 crore, to address human-elephant conflict - HEC. 

It is prepared by the Project Elephant Division, of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change - MOEFCC- and the Wildlife Institute of India-WII.

In Karnataka, reservoirs and dam projects have submerged elephant habitats. Highway upgrades have added to fragmentation of habitat.

In Kerala, hydropower projects, tourism infrastructure and expanding pilgrimage centers, put pressure on habitats. Canal infrastructure have created risks of accidental deaths. 

The New Indian Express,    Saturday,     August 29, 2026

Rahu, Earth @ Srawishta

Human sacrifice is typically intended, to bring good fortune, to pacify gods or an authoritative priestly figure. As in the context of dedication of a completed building, like a temple or a bridge. 

Baana-bhatta of 7th century describes a series of human sacrifices in the dedication of a temple to Chandika.

Haribhadra in the 9th century describes a series of sacrifices, in dedication of a temple to Chandika, in Orissa.  

Kuknur in Karnataka has a Kali temple of 8th century, with a history of human sacrifices. 

Nara-bali,   man-sacrifice,    Wikipedia   

Naari-bali. . . . . ?

Body of  34 year old Subhashree, who went missing from the telenga cult centre, was fished out in a decomposed state, from a nearby well, in Semmedu, on Sunday, the police said.

Subhashree, from nearby Tiruppur district had attended weeklong 'silence' sessions from December 11 to 18.

She did not meet her husband (Manikumar, 40) after the class on December 18, as planned. And he filed a complaint.  Manikumar said, he waited for Subhashree outside the telenga cult centre from 11 a.m to 3 p.m. 

The cult centre said, it had nothing to do with the incident, as the participant had left the campus at 9.30.a.m.

CCTV footage showed Shubashree, mother of a teenage daughter, running, wearing white clothes at 10.30 a.m. on December 18.  

Deccan Herald,    updated   Jan. 01, 2023,    18:24 IST