CH NEWS
BENGALURU
Four Kumki elephants were handed over to the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday. In a ceremony held in front of Vidhan Soudha, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar handed over the tamed elephants to Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and Forest Minister Pawan Kalyan. On this occasion, they signed an agreement to hand over the Kumki elephants from Karnataka to the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Speaking to reporters, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that cooperation of neighboring states is necessary to prevent human-elephant conflict. “Ours is a state with the highest elephant population in the country. We have 3695 elephants,” he said.
Preventing human-elephant conflict will prevent loss of life and crop damage. It is for this important purpose that six Kumki elephants from the state were handed over to Andhra Pradesh, he added.
“Four elephants were handed over on Wednesday and two more will be given in the coming days,” he said.
These elephants were handed over to Andhra Pradesh as part of the exchange of best practices agreement signed during the International Conference on Human-Elephant Conflict held in Bengaluru last August.
On August 8 last year, Pawan Kalyan had met Minister Eshwar Khandre and requested him to provide elephants to help in capture of the increasing number of poachers and to provide training to the forest guards and forest personnel of his state in elephant capture operations.
Ministers KJ George, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Byrati Suresh, Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh and others were present.
Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Eshwar Khandre said that this will not only enhance friendly relations with the neighboring state, but also provide a solution to the elephant-human conflict on the Karnataka border and in Andhra Pradesh.