MYSURU:The fencing of forests to check man-animal conflict will take off on April 20.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who announced the Rs 212-crore project for the fencing of Nagarahole forest and Bandipur National Park in the Budget, will launch the programme at Veeranahosahalli in Nagarahole forest range of Hunsur taluk.
The Forest Department has completed formalities to take up fencing using rails for 2 km to stop elephants from entering human habitation.
Though the government announced Rs 212 crore for the project, both the Houses of Legislature passed the supplementary grants for Rs 50 crore, thanks to the demand mainly from the legislators of Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts.
The Finance Department has released Rs 25 crore as the first installment on Siddaramaiah’s direction as red tape and lack of co-ordination between the departments had delayed the project. The forest and other departments have cleared the tenders for fencing of 23 km of forest falling in the Nagarahole forest range, while the process is on for inviting tenders for fencing of 46 km in the Bandipur National Park.
With this, Karnataka will be the first state in the country to erect rail fencing after the Addo Elephant Park in South Africa, where elephants are contained in a 1,640 sq km area fenced with rails and lift cables, thus reducing man-animal conflict.
As per the 2012 Census, the elephant population stands at 1,697 in Bandipur, 1,320 in Nagarahole, 480 in Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Wildlife Sanctuary and 257 in Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. The authorities say that the elephant population would have gone up by 5 to 7 per cent further.
Meanwhile, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Srinivasan said they have erected a barricade using rails at Varthihalla area of Anechowkur Wildlife Range in the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve for 65 metres. This would prevent elephants from entering villages and damaging crops.
Hunsur MLA Manjunath said the authorities should expedite the fencing project in both the national park areas as people are spending sleepless nights bursting crackers, beating drums and setting up fire camps to stop jumbos from raiding their crops. He said that initially the fencing will come up at all weak points that have recorded the highest movement of jumbos entering the human habitation.
He said that they have requested the chief minister for sufficient funds to complete the project.
The forest authorities said that early completion of the project will save lives and also save money to the government exchequer in the form of compensation. Sources in the Forest Department said that 53 people were killed in elephant attacks in 10 years and the department gave away Rs 1.17 crore as compensation. As much as Rs 7.15 crore has been paid towards crop compensation in 38,000 cases.
The crop compensation will further shoot up as the government has increased it up to Rs 1 lakh.
As for elephant casualties, of the 803 elephant deaths between 2008 and 2013, 85 were electrocuted in five years.
What to expect
● Aim of project to prevent elephants from straying into human habitation
● Rs 212 crore for fencing
● Rs 25 crore released as first installment
● Fencing to be done using rail tracks