Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, known to ride roughshod over officials at review meetings, put himself in a sticky situation while dealing with wildlife issues at the Karnataka Development Programme review meeting here on Tuesday.
He picked on the Forest Department officials and chided them for “allowing tigers and leopards to come out of the forests.”
To this, H.C. Kantharaj, Director, Bandipur Tiger Reserve, explained how weak carnivores were either killed or ejected out in territorial fights and hence come to the fringes stalking on cattle for survival. But, the Chief Minister was not convinced and shot back saying, “Don’t you know they are old? What are your guards doing? Why don’t you ensure food supply?”
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While the official tried to explain that they were wild animals and nocturnal in nature, Mr. Siddaramaiah was in no mood to listen and simply brushed away the arguments.
Man-elephant conflict
The discussion then veered towards man-elephant conflict and Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Srinivasan talked of the elephant migration and how elephant proof trenches and solar fences were in place to prevent their movement towards human habitation. When Madhusudhan, MLC, stated that owing to bamboo flowering elephants did not have adequate fodder in the forests, Mr. Srinivasan said it was seasonal and there was enough fodder as the elephants move from Karnataka towards either Kerala or Tamil Nadu.
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This irked Mr. Siddaramaiah who seemed oblivious of elephant migratory movement and flayed the official again. He said, “If our elephants are going to Kerala or Tamil Nadu what are your guards doing there? If elephants leave Karnataka and move to either Kerala or Tamil Nadu it is because our forests are bad,” he said and added “I refuse to buy your arguments” even as the officials thought it prudent to remain silent.