MADIKERI: A banquet of jack fruits was arranged for wild elephants inside the reserve forest area in Kodagu. The initiative was taken up by the Kushalnagar division forest department as part of the Environment day observation.
During jackfruit season the wild elephants often venture into estates lured by the scent of ripened jackfruits. However, the increased elephant movement causes major destruction of crops in the estates. As a temporary remedy to this issue and as an environment day initiative, a large quantity of jackfruits was collected from private estates across Kushalnagar area and they were loaded onto over three pick-up vehicles. These fruits were then ferried to the Anekaad and Atturu Reserve forest areas.
“The elephants often venture into the private estates in search of jackfruits and in turn cause damage to crops. We asked a few estate owners if we could collect the jackfruits. While some of the yield was retained by the estate owners, the additional yield was collected from the department. We shifted the jackfruits to the reserve forest and have laid out piles of fruits inside the forest area on the usual elephant pathway,” explained Shivaram, Kushalnagar RFO.
He added that this initiative was undertaken with the self-interest from DCF and CCF. “However, this cannot be carried out regularly due to the dearth of funds. We will have to shed for the transport and it is not feasible. This initiative was planned only for the environment day,” he confirmed.