MYSURU: The rise in the elephant and tiger numbers may have brought smiles back on the faces of wildlife activists but has turned out to be a major concern for legislators representing constituencies covering reserve forests.
With increased sighting of elephants, tigers and leopards near villages, legislators, cutting across party lines, even suggested relocating elephants and tigers to different forests across the state. Participating in the Karnataka Development Programme meeting held at the zilla panchayat here on Monday, Periyapatna MLA K Venkatesh said a wild tusker was sighted on the outskirts of Peryipatna town and wanted to know the reasons for jumbos entering towns and villages.
He said there are complaints of tigers and leopards straying close to villages near the fringes of the Nagarahole Reserve Forest.
But the forest department is short of cages had has no spare cage to trap tigers that have started attacking animals and human beings, he said.
Venkatesh said forest officials should grow fodder in forests for the jumbos. The dried up bamboo in reserve forests and drying waterholes have forced them to come out of the forests, he observed.
JD(S) MLA S Chikkamadu said the government should seriously consider relocating wild animals to other forests in the state. He said incomplete elephant trenches around national parks have allowed jumbos to raid farms and human habitations in H D Kote, Hunsur and Periyapatna region.
He criticised the act of displacing families living in forest fringes for generations and stalling water supply schemes in these areas.
Chikkamadu appealed to District Minister V Srinivasa Prasad to permit authorities to utilise the foundation fund of `4 crore in Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks to complete the trench work.
Hunsur MLA H P Manjunath said the government has announced `220 crore in the Budget for using rails as fences to prevent elephants from straying. He said the government has released `20 crore and work will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on February 20.
Chamundeshwari MLA G T Deve Gowda and others wanted to know the reason for the increase in man-animal conflict. He also accused forest officials of being hand-in-glove with timber smugglers and said they were not dedicated to saving forests.
Nagarhole DCF Balachandra said bamboo shoots are likely to grow well in a year. He observed that availability of enough bamboo in the forests may stop jumbos from entering fields and human habitation.
Mysore Division DCF Karikalan said the state had 6,000 elephants and Nagarahole alone has 10,000 spotted deer and other wild animals. He said they captured 18 leopards and released them deep inside the forests, stopped 13 elephants from entering Mysuru, and have 18 cages.
Enraged over the response, Srinivasa Prasad pulled up officers for their “callousness” and their “failure” to grow alternative food for elephants in the forests.
He said the government has released sufficient grants and extended all support for programmes to check the man-animal conflict. “What is the problem when you have sufficient staff at the field level?” he asked the officials.
