Bandipur National Park which is home to more than 1100 elephants as per the last estimation, is set to get a task force to deal with conflict situation.
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The State Budget for 2024-25 allocated ₹10 crore to establish a task force besides providing ₹40 crore to strengthen the existing seven elephant task forces and two leopard task forces elsewhere across Karnataka.
Welcoming the decision, Ramesh Kumar, Director, Bandipur Tiger Reserve said there are hot spots in Hediyala, Omkara, and Moleyuru. Bandipur has the highest elephant population in the State coupled with a high density of human population on the fringes of the national park.
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As a consequence, the conflict is also high and the Minister for Forests Ecology and Environment Eshwar B. Khandre was apprised of the requirement recently, said Ramesh Kumar.
Once the task force is established, a dedicated team will be in place to deal with situation arising with conflicts and monitoring the elephant presence or movement, goad it towards the forests in case the herd is found to stray to human landscape, attend to issues related to crop damage and human injuries or death.
Ramesh Kumar said the task force was essential as Bandipur had recorded nearly 3500 cases of conflict entailing crop damage and a few human deaths during 2023-24 and over ₹2.5 crore had been paid by way of compensation.
The Budget, while noting the increase in human-animal conflict and the imperatives of protecting human life while conserving wildlife, noted that priority will be given to construct railway barricades along forest boundaries in areas that are prone to conflict.
While recalling that ₹100 crore was provided in the previous Budget for rail barricading and around 78 km of barricade was constructed, there was no allocation for it per se in this year’s Budget. It only said that ‘’in the current year also, priority will be given to construct railway barricades’’.