Prevent jumbos from straying out of forest in summer: Minister Khandre
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Prevent jumbos from straying out of forest in summer: Minister Khandre

January 30, 2025

Mysuru: In view of the summer, Minister of Forest, Ecology and Environment Eshwar Khandre has instructed the officials to effectively maintain the Elephant Proof Trenches (EPT) and Solar Fences, to check the menace of wild elephants at the villages in forest fringes and to prevent wild fire.

He was addressing a meeting of Senior Forest Officers of Mysuru Circle at Aranya Bhavan, Ashokapuram in the city yesterday.

Precautions should be taken to check wild fire and the Fire Extinguishers should be kept ready to douse the fire. The Forest personnel in all the ranges should keep a vigil and in case of any fire, they have to swung into action by dousing the flames to save forest resources. Awareness should be created among the villagers in forest fringes, about wild fire, to win over their confidence, he said.

Steps should be taken to ensure that there won’t be any lack of water facility for the wild animals during summer.

“We should look whether the solar borewells inside the forest are functional and supply water to the lakes from the borewells,” said Khandre.

The incidents of man-animal conflicts in the jurisdiction of Mysuru Circle of the Forest Department should be brought under control, he said, reiterating about the steps taken so far to control the wild elephants from straying into the villages.

 He also directed the officials to take action to totally prohibit single use plastic towards the conservation of environment in the city, with the Mysuru City already declared as ‘Single Use Plastic-Free City.’ Action should be taken to stop the sales of plastic carry bags, bottles, plates, cups, banners, buntings among other products, including the supply and stocking of the banned articles. Fine should be imposed on offenders, by carrying out regular inspections in this regard, added Khandre.

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Following a query from the Minister about the extent of railway barricades installed in Bandipur Tiger Reserve that falls under the jurisdiction of Mysuru Circle of Forest Department, Conservator of Forest Dr. M. Malathi Priya said, 173-km forest area of Bandipur is spread through the villages in forest fringes and 73-km railway barricades have been installed so far. Presently, the work is being taken up to install 15-km of railway barricades. If the remaining 85.22 km long area is covered by railway barricades, the total works will be completed, added Dr. Priya.

The Minister directed the CF to send a proposal to install the remaining 85.22 km of  railway barricades, that is estimated to cost Rs. 157 crore.

The Minister also sought details related to proposed Leopard Conservation and Rehabilitation Centre near Yelwal. The Minister assured to seek Cabinet approval for the proposed project estimated to cost Rs. 70 crore. An extent of 92 acres of land is available near Forest Personnel Training Centre at Yelwal, to set up the Leopard Conservation and Rehabilitation Centre, he added.

Conservator of Forest (Project) Ravishankar, DCFs Dr. K.N. Basavaraj, Dr. I.B. Prabhu Gowda, Dr. Chandrashekar Patil and Fayaz Ghasi, Senior Officer of Environment Department Rajashekar and others were present.

During summer, there should be no scarcity of drinking water in urban and rural areas. The quality of water supplied from water tankers should be monitored regularly to ensure that there won’t be any contamination of water. There are complaints over the contaminated water and UGD water being diverted to the lakes. The reason behind UGD water diverted towards the lake through Raja Kaluve, without reaching Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) should be identified, said Eshwar Khandre, Forest Minister.

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