Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh), May 26 (IANS): Following increasing incidents of man-animal conflict in the Pilibhit Tiger reserve (PTR), the State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) in Uttar Pradesh has approved a sum of Rs 2.25 crore for installing a chain link fencing in a 10-km stretch in the Mala range of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve.

The funds from the central pool are expected to be released soon.

The project is the brainchild of former conservator of forest of Bareilly circle, Pinaki Prasad Singh, who proposed the fencing in 2018 along the 148-km stretch on the inner periphery of the PTR to separate villages adjoining the forest.

This was designed to permanently solve the problem of man-animal conflict.

"The solution to man-tiger conflict in surroundings of PTR lies in an 8-foot high chain link fencing fixed on the 2.5-foot high bricked wall with grouted iron pipes in the entire sensitive and highly sensitive grids," said Singh, who is now chief conservator of forest in Jhansi.

He said the total cost of the project had been assessed at Rs 51.80 crore, with an outlay of Rs 35 lakh per km.

Field director of PTR, H. Rajamohan, however, said that the CAMPA had approved the chain link fencing in a 10-km stretch. "We will set it up in sensitive parts of the Mala forest range between village Mala and Goel Colony, where fatal incidents of man-tiger conflict have been reported in the recent past," he said.

He said that the standards of fencing, as proposed by Pinaki Prasad Singh, were not possible to meet with the sanctioned budget.

The department would therefore modulate the height and other parameters of the fence, he added.