If former Speaker, K.G. Bopaiah, expected to put Forest Minister , Ramanath Rai in a spot over his department's lack of success in preventing elephants from straying into villages in Kodagu, he was in for a surprise as the minister turned the tables on him instead. When Mr Bopaiah raised the issue, Mr Rai shot back, reminding the former Speaker that he was felicitated by the people of his constituency for erecting barricades to stop the jumbos. "After being felicitated, it is not appropriate for the member to say that inferior work was done,'' he said, adding that he was aware of elephants sometimes digging holes under barricades and getting out. But these were stray cases.
Mr Bopaiah responded saying he was talking about gaps left in the elephant proof trenches wherever there were rocks which allowed the jumbos to stray into villages. "Some 30 elephants are camping in a village as a result," he maintained.
