Karnataka: 22 die in human-animal conflicts since April

BENGALURU: From the month of April this year as many as 22 persons lost their lives in Karnataka after coming in conflict with wild animals including tigers, elephants, leopards, sloth bears, and wild boars, said Minister for Forests and Environment Eshwar Khadre. The minister held a high-level meeting with forest department officials in the wake of a rise in the number of of man-animal conflict cases.

The minister urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to release Rs 500 crore to initiate measures to mitigate the man-animal conflict such as the installation of rail barricades and other measures.

After a meeting with senior forest officials, Eshwar Khandre said that in the last five and half years, a total of 148 persons have succumbed to injuries from elephant attacks alone.

However, the Minister stated that the deaths due to elephant attacks in Karnataka are far less compared to some other states which report a high number of deaths. Khandre said Karnataka is home to about 6395 elephants, the highest in the country while states such as Jharkhand has about 700 jumbos, and on an average 80 deaths are reported every year.

The Minister added that 13 elephants died in Karnataka due to unnatural causes such as electrocution, accidents, and gunshot injuries this year. In one incident, a jumbo was knocked by a train and 10 cases of electrocution deaths were reported. Two elephants died from gunshot injuries while 25 jumbos died of natural causes.

To mitigate man-elephant encounters, the forest department has erected 312 km of rail fencing in various forest areas. The department plans to lay fencing in 640-km of forest area.