Bengaluru
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who gave instructions to increase the monitoring of drone cameras and formulate scientific methods in consultation with experts including Krupakara Senani-Sanjay Gubbi to avoid human-wildlife conflict, assured that all assistance from the government, including necessary personnel and funds, will be provided.
He instructed that steps be taken to immediately capture 15-20 tigers roaming outside the forest area due to old age, injuries caused by attacks by new young tigers and other reasons with the help of drone cameras.
Eight Kumki elephants are already being used for the operation and the Chief Minister instructed that the number of personnel and squads be used in the conflict-affected forest area as per the requirement. After a comprehensive discussion on this, the Chief Minister said, the following eight-point programme is in place to control human-wildlife conflict.
*Identify areas where human-wildlife conflict exists and list the nature of the conflict.
* Human resource management: Assignment of officers and staff based on the intensity of the conflict.
*Patrol: Increase patrols in forest edge villages and maintain registers.
*Senior officers should regularly stay in forest edge villages, especially those with human-wildlife conflict.
*Involve local people, identify enthusiastic youth and elders of forest edge villages and consider them as forest friends and use their services during patrols, wildlife, capture, and operations.
* Make vehicles and forest staff available 24/7 at strategic places where wildlife roam for wildlife conservation operations.
Mock show:
Organize a mock show to provide information on wildlife capture and what to do when a wildlife attack occurs.
Formation of coordination/collaboration committee at district level
Formation of sub-committee at taluk level and seeking assistance from district administration and police department*
This committee will meet regularly and work towards controlling human-wildlife conflict
Other important issues discussed in the meeting…
Karnataka has the highest number of elephants at 6395, ranking first in the country
Tiger numbers at 563, ranking second in the country
And 1879 leopards, ranking third in the country
In the last three years, wildlife attacks have claimed 57 human lives in the state in 2022-23,
65 in 2023-24, 46 in 2024-25, and 32 in 2025-26.
The highest number of human lives were lost in Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Hassan, Mysore, and Ramanagara districts.
There has been a 30% reduction in human lives lost in 2024-25 compared to the last three years.
Wildlife should be prevented from coming out in search of food. Water should be provided for wildlife inside the forest during the summer season.
The authorities should take action to remove the lantana that is spreading widely in the forest. Otherwise, there will be a shortage of food for wildlife.
Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board Chairman Narendra Swamy, and forest department officials were present.