In Andhra Pradesh people have been scared of the elephant problem in the agency areas of Chittoor and Srikakulam districts for years. Elephants have been destroying crop fields, entering villages and even killing people. This has been happening a lot. The governments before had tried to solve the problem with things like “Operation Gaja” using kumki elephants.. They did not tell people about it much.
Then the new government came to power in 2024. Pawan Kalyan became the Deputy Chief Minister. He was also in charge of the Forest Department. After that many media people and Jana Sena supporters on media started talking about everything the Forest Department was doing. At the time elephant attacks became even more common in Chittoor and Srikakulam districts. For example a farmer named Ganapathi Yadav was killed in Nagamvandlapalli village. This made a lot of people talk about the issue.
Pawan Kalyan said he had spoken to the Karnataka government and they would send kumki elephants to Andhra Pradesh. This was news. Finally in May 2025 the Karnataka government gave four kumki elephants to Andhra Pradesh. The Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar and Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre were at the ceremony. They gave Pawan Kalyan some papers and the elephants were sent off with some rituals.
Some Telugu media people and Jana Sena social media platforms said this was an important event. They said kumki elephants had come to Andhra Pradesh for the time.. Soon some problems came up.
The elephants from Karnataka were named Deva, Krishna, Abhimanyu and Ranjan. After they arrived the forest officials did a kumki operation in the Palamaneru forest. Jana Sena social media accounts said the operation was successful and the new elephants were used.. People soon found out that the elephants in the pictures were actually old kumki elephants named Jayanth and Vinayak. They had been working in the state for than ten years and had nothing to do with the new elephants.
There was controversy when people said the new elephants were not good for frontline work. Krishna and Abhimanyu were too young and small. Ranjan was hard to control. Would get angry with the handlers. The mahouts from Karnataka went back to Karnataka.
The biggest problem was with the elephant named Deva. People in the forest department said Deva was blind in one eye and should not have been brought to Andhra Pradesh. This became an issue on social media and people questioned if the new elephants were any good.
Now people are saying that taking care of these four elephants is costing the state a lot of money and some of them are not useful. There is talk about sending Deva to Karnataka.
This has started a debate about whether Pawan Kalyans idea of bringing kumki elephants was a complete failure. People are asking if the old elephants like Jayanth and Vinayak are still doing the work in the state. They are also wondering if Karnataka gave Andhra Pradesh elephants that were not good enough. The elephant problem, in Andhra Pradesh is still an issue. The kumki elephants are supposed to help with the elephant problem.. It seems like the problem is still there. The people of Andhra Pradesh are still waiting for a solution. The elephant problem is a deal. People are scared of the elephants. The government needs to do something to solve the problem. The kumki elephants were supposed to help.. Now people are not sure if they are doing any good.
