Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Friday that he would consider establishing a wildlife safari in Mysuru as another tourist attraction and asked the Forest Department to send him a proposal so that he could allocate funds in the budget.
Speaking after inaugurating Chamundi Wildlife Conservation, Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre set up by the Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) at Koorgalli on the city’s outskirts, the Chief Minister said he had discussed the proposal with senior forest officials (Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, Vinay Luthra was present) and they said safari could be developed on 80 acres of forest area adjoining the rescue centre.
He said the zoo attracted 32 lakh visitors annually.
While promising more funds for developing facilities at the State’s second wildlife rescue centre, Mr. Siddaramaiah said 113.21 acres of forest land was transferred to the ZAK in 2012 to develop the rescue centre for housing rescued/ captured wild animals.
Man-animal conflict
Referring to human-animal conflicts, the Chief Minister said he had directed the Forest Cepartment to take steps to prevent such incidents and added that he had allocated Rs. 212 crore in his previous budget for putting up unused railway tracks on the forest borders to prevent straying of wild elephants.
He said the State has highest number of elephants and tigers in the country. “The State forests have 6,000 elephants and 400-410 tigers,” he said. Earlier, in his address, Mr. Ramanath Rai urged the Chief Minister to consider allotting land for expanding the Mysore zoo.
On the occasion, ZAK chairperson Rehana Banu presented a memorandum to the Chief Minister urging him to allocate Rs. 30 crore for setting up a multi-storied parking lot opposite the zoo to ease parking problem and Rs. 14 crore for completing the aquarium project.
Mysore Zoo Executive Director B.P. Ravi gave an overview of the rescue centre.
Supporters of Mr Siddaramaiah from Koorgalli, Maidunahalli, Yelwal and nearby villages had gathered in big numbers to greet their leader since he had earlier represented the Chamundeshwari constituency where the new facility had been developed.
