Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday advised the Forest Department to work towards expanding the forest cover from 20 per cent to 33 per cent and promised to provide all support for making it happen. If the forest area went up, the benefits would be manifold like rain, farm productivity improvement and so on.
The forest cover in the State now wasaround 20-22 per cent but ideally it should be about 33 per cent. Human beings had to take blame for the decline in forest cover, which had affected wildlife and increased man-animal conflict, he argued.
Speaking after inaugurating the valedictory of 69th Wildlife Week organised by the Forest Department at the Karnataka Police Academy here, the Chief Minister said despite the depleted forest area, the State was first in elephant numbers and second in tiger numbers. The State has 563 tigers and 6,395 elephants, he said, adding that human beings needed to learn to live with animals as it was their responsibility for wildlife conservation.
He advised the Forest department to ensure that the saplings planted every year survived and grew into trees for expanding the forest cover. “If the survival rate is around 70 per cent, why has the forest area not increased despite plantations every year,” Mr. Siddaramaiah asked.
An audit on tree plantation was essential to find out the truth, he felt.
Blames BJP govt.
Blaming the previous BJP government for not completing the work on installing rail barricades for addressing conflict situations, Mr. Siddaramaiah said in his earlier term he had installed rail barricades on 312 km as against 640 km. If the entire area was barricaded, the conflict would have been addressed to a large extent, he claimed.
The Chief Minister said wild animals strayed into human habitations in search of food and therefore the Forest Department needed to focus on preventing conflict. If this was addressed, it would prevent deaths and crop loss.
The Chief Minister thanked the forest staff and the tribals for their role in conserving forests and wildlife
10 crore saplings
Minister for Forests and Environment Eshwar Khandre said 5.06 crore saplings had been planted in the last four months and the target for next monsoon was 10 crore saplings since the government had set its vision to increase the forest cover to 33 per cent.
He said his department was finding ways to address human-animal conflict, as some 52 people die every year in the State caught in the conflict. In Mysuru region alone, 32 people had died in the conflict so far this year.
He said additional funds had been sought from the Chief Minister for installing rail barricades on 130 km of forest boundary.
Minister in charge of Mysuru district H.C. Mahadevappa said the State forest cover could be between 20 to 22 percent on paper but in reality it should be between 15 to 16 per cent. If the forest laws were enforced strictly, the target of increasing forest cover to 33 per cent could be achieved.
Former Minister and MLA Tanveer Sait presided. Darshan Dhruvanarayan, Anil Chikkamadu, T.S. Srivatsa, and Ravishankar, MLAs, Mayor Shivakumar, Thimmaiah and Manje Gowda, MLCs, senior forest officials, including Brijesh Kumar Dixit, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, and others were present.
Wildlife ambulance
Earlier, the Chief Minister launched the State’s first wildlife ambulance for treating and transporting injured or rescued wild animals. It has been launched by the Leopard Task Force. It’s a fully-equipped ambulance required in handling an operation.
Mr. Siddaramaiah also saw products made from the forest weed lantana by the tribals at the stall put up by the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve.
