Mangalore, Jun 29: Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment B Ramanath Rai said that the state government had decided to undertake a 3-year programme to establish an 'elephant corridor' in the state to prevent human-elephant conflicts in the future.
Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a programme on Saturday, he said that the programme would be effectively implemented, by setting up solar fencing and ditches so as to prevent elephants from venturing into human populated areas. Elephants have particular migratory routes, and only divert from their routes if disturbed or in search of food and water, which may lead to human-elephant conflicts. To minimise this, the state government may have to re-construct the elephant corridor, he said.
Few passages are traditional routes for elephants to move between forest areas, which cannot be changed. Illegal encroachment of forest land for agricultural purposes will be checked, in order to provide elephants a safe corridor between adjoining forests in the state. Awareness on this will also be undertaken as part of the programme by installing boards declaring particular regions as 'elephant-prone zones' to warn people, he said.
The High Court has formed a Task Force which has submitted a report on this regard, which is being implemented, he said, adding that a meeting of all MLAs had been called to discuss the issue.
He also said that attempts would be made to provide tribes residing in reserve forest areas for over three generations with title deeds for their land under Forests Rights Act.
Endo issue
On the dumping of Endosulfan bottles in areas near the Karnataka-Kerala border, Minister for Health and Family Welfare U T Khader said that he had visited the region in Puttur taluk adjoining Kerala state.
The primary step in this regard should be towards testing the soil in the area, which cannot be done instantly as it borders with Kerala state. It is necessary to visit Kerala and hold talks with the Chief Minister and other related ministers of the state, to necessitate the testing of soil samples from the region, he said.
“We will try to ensure that the people of the region are not affected, if the ground water is found to be contaminated,” assured Mr Rai.
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