MADIKERI: A fruit banquet was laid out for wild elephants inside the reserve forest areas in Kodagu by the Kushalnagar division forest department as part of the World Environment Day celebration. It is jackfruit season and wild elephants often venture into estates following the scent.
However, the increased elephant movement causes major destruction of crops in the estates. As a temporary remedy, a large quantity of jackfruits was collected from private estates across Kushalnagar area and these fruits were ferried to the Anekaad and Atturu Reserve forest areas.
“The elephants often venture into private estates looking for 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 rest was collected by the department. We shifted the jackfruits to the reserve forest and 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 self-interest from DCF and CCF. “This cannot be carried out regularly due to the dearth of funds. Transport cost is not feasible. This initiative was planned only for the environment day,” he confirmed.