The government has issued an order for the setting up of a dedicated leopard task force for Bengaluru city. This comes in the wake of repeated sightings of leopards in the city’s residential areas.
The order states that due to an increase in the number of leopard sightings in Kaggalipura, Anekal, Hoskote, K.R. Puram, and Yelahanka, the leopard task force has been established which will take the assistance of the Forest Department officials and use the existing resources of the department.
Forest and Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre said the task force will start operations in a couple of days.
Mr. Khandre held a high-level meeting with senior officials on Thursday, expressing grief over the death of a member of the elephant task force in an elephant attack in Mudigere on November 22 and directed officials to take action to prevent such incidents from reoccurring.
He also asked officials to examine all the elephant attack death cases in the State in the last two years and make a note of which region recorded the highest number of deaths.
He suggested finding out what is the reason for elephant attacks and taking remedial measures including informing the locals in advance.
Nodal officers
The government has also announced the appointment of nodal officers to mitigate man-animal conflicts in nine districts in the State.
The senior IFS officers have been appointed as nodal officers for Kolar, Tumakuru, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Mysuru, Chamrajnagar, and Kodagu districts.
Officials suggested that a review meeting should be held on human-wildlife conflict within the designated districts and various pending compensation cases should be discussed and settled in the district.
