Establishment of elephant camp at Bhadra sanctuary soon: Khandre

Shivamogga: Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwara B Khandre has announced that an elephant camp will be set up in Bhadra Sanctuary to control the menace of wild elephants in Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga areas. While inaugurating the Bhadra Tiger Reserve Silver Jubilee Ceremony held at the Kuvempu University Hall in Shivamogga, he said that wildlife and human conflict is increasing in the state and elephants are causing a lot of loss of life and crop damage. In order to control this, he said that he has instructed the wildlife wardens to submit a proposal to establish an elephant sanctuary i.e. Elephant Soft Release Centre in an area of 2,000 hectares.

In the area of about 5,000 acres of this elephant sanctuary, bamboo, jackfruit, grass etc., which are liked by elephants, will be grown and the captured elephants will be brought and released here after installing a barricade around it. He explained that this will help to avoid the problems caused by elephants outside the forest in Kodagu, Hassan, Shimoga and Chikkamagaluru districts.

Bhadra Tiger Sanctuary is a vast protected forest covering one thousand square kilometers. It contains the rich forest wealth of the Western Ghats, a World Heritage Site. Karnataka ranks 2nd in tiger numbers in the country. There are around 563 tigers in the state. He said that the 50th anniversary of the Tiger Project, which was started in 1973 by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to protect the endangered tigers, is another happy event.

In the past, tigers were poached for skins and claws. In view of this, the Forest Department has opened more than 200 anti-poaching camps in 5 tiger reserves of the state. He explained that poaching has stopped and the number of tigers has increased.

The Bhadra Tiger Reserve comprises a landscape of natural beauty. Rivers, streams and ditches continue to flow here 365 days a year. Abundant with water, flora, fauna and insects, this region is rich in biodiversity and home to hundreds of species of wildlife.

Realizing the importance of wildlife in this area, the then Mysore government declared an area of 124 sq km as Jagar Valley Game Reserve in 1951, and then in 1974 it was expanded to 492 sq km and notified as Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary by the Government of Karnataka. He said that this sanctuary was declared as the 25th tiger reserve of the country under the “Tiger Project” in 1998. Earlier, 736 families from 16 villages were living in this tiger reserve, and those families voluntarily moved to Kelaguru and Malali Channenahalli villages of Chikkamagaluru district under the Bhadra Rehabilitation Project. This is the most successful rehabilitation project in India and shows the importance of people’s participation in tiger conservation. Similarly, the state government will try to persuade those living inside the forest areas of the state to rehabilitate all of them, he said. After the resettlement of the Bhadra forest dwellers, human wildlife conflict has reduced significantly and the reserve currently has 40 tigers, which initially had 8 tigers. The reason for this is the conservation of tiger habitat. He said that there is a dense forest here and there are more than 400 elephants.On the same occasion, the Minister released a postage stamp, website and small lamps to commemorate the Bhadra Silver Jubilee.