From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Aug 12: Karnataka’s pioneering initiative of established 9 specialised Elephant Task Forces have successfully tackled over 1,200 man-elephant conflict incidents last year alone, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru on Monday.
He was speaking after inaugurating the international conference on Human-Elephant Conflict Management at the Gandhi Krushi Vijnan Kendra (GKVK) held under the auspices of State Forest and Environment Department in Bengaluru, in which Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Forest Minister Eshwar B Khandre and ministers as well as senior officials participated.
Siddaramaiah said Karnataka's significant elephant population comes the inevitable challenge of human-elephant conflict. In the last 10 years, the State reported over 2,500 incidents of human-elephant conflicts, resulting in over 350 human fatalities and substantial crop losses.
“This issue is not unique to our state but is shared by almost all regions with substantial elephant populations,” he said.
The State Forest Department is well-prepared with both the necessary manpower and the latest technological tools to mitigate conflicts swiftly and effectively, he said explaining that the Task Forces are headed by Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) rank officers and strategically positioned across all major conflict zones.
The task forces are supported by control rooms that provide prompt responses to public and farmer concerns, protect communities from elephant encounters, and facilitate the safe return of elephants to their natural habitats.
The Chief Minister said the Karnataka Aranya Samarasya Project aims to establish zero human-animal conflict zones in targeted forest areas of Karnataka.
“This comprehensive plan involves strategies for water security, habitat improvement, and active community participation. Habitat improvement activities such as grassland development, bamboo regeneration, and the creation of water holes with solar water pump facilities to minimise the straying of wild animals into human landscapes, “he said.
He said people have coexisted with elephants for thousands of years, but boundaries, development activities, the climate, and natural resources are changing, putting pressure on us and them. Elephants increasingly find their home ranges fragmented by new villages, farms, cities, highways, or industrial growth such as mining.
Barriers like fences and train tracks force them to travel longer distances and risk injury. The land where they once foraged is now home to human agriculture, and accessing watering holes increases their contact with villagers, he said pointing out that climate change raises temperatures and changes rainfall patterns, resources become scarce forcing elephants into new areas, including communal lands.
India proudly houses the largest population of Asiatic elephants globally, with about 30,000 elephants as per the 2017 census. Karnataka is the state with the highest elephant population with 6,395 elephants, which makes approximately 25% of the nation's total elephant population. The State is also home to the second-highest population of tigers at 563 tigers, as given by the All India Tiger Estimation 2022.
The large numbers of large mammals and top predators indicate a healthy population of herbivores and other forest resources.
However, an increase in human-wildlife conflict has been observed in recent years due to developmental pressures and fragmentation of forest areas. Karnataka has allocated a dedicated budget head specifically for addressing human-animal conflicts. Annually, over Rs150 crore are directed toward mitigating human-elephant conflicts.
These funds support various initiatives, including installing physical barriers such as over 300 kms of railway barricades, solar fencing spanning over 800 kms, solar tentacle fencing, and elephant-proof trenches etc. The Rail barricading project was initiated in Karnataka and it is the only state that has been implementing it since 2015-16, he explained.