Belagavi
Wild animals including elephants are coming to Nadi from the forest and it is a matter of concern that forest department staff and wild animals are also dying during the operation. Forest, Biology and Environment Minister Ishwara B Khandre said that steps have been taken to provide proper training to all the task force personnel in this regard. In the meeting held in room number 318 of Suvarna Methodist Church, Belgaum, Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan district in-charge ministers K.J. George, Bosraj and K.N. Presiding over the meeting held in the presence of Rajanna and MLAs of three districts, he said that nodal officers have already been appointed for 9 districts where human and wildlife conflict is high in the state and they have been instructed to stay in the assigned district for at least 2 days a week to deal with the situation. Railway barricade is the best solution we have to prevent the elephant from reaching Nadi in the current situation. But this is not something that will happen in a couple of years. 100 crore rupees have been allocated in the budget and steps have been taken to put up railway barricades in places where the elephant menace is high. He said, let’s go to the Chief Minister with the MLAs of the areas where there is a problem of elephants and request for more funding. A total of 43 people have died in human-wildlife conflict in the state since last April, of which 30 have died due to elephant attacks. He explained that 10 in Chamarajanagar, 7 in Kodagu district, 3 in Ramanagara, 2 each in Bangalore and Mysore, 2 each in Hassan Circle and one in Shimoga were killed by elephant attacks. Other than that, two have been killed by wild boar and one by crocodile. Two were killed by bear attacks, while 3 were killed by leopard attacks. He informed that 4 deaths occurred due to tiger attack and one died due to monkey bite. Moving elephants is a daunting task. The number of elephants in the state has increased. There is a complaint of not getting food in the forest. Action has been taken to provide water facility, but that number should be increased. He advised that action should be taken to catch Pundane.
