Karnataka to initiate action on SC’s electric fence removal order

BENGALURU: In the wake of the Supreme Court directing the removal of electric fences and barbed wires in critical elephant corridors of Karnataka, the state forest department will begin the process of survey and identification. They will then instruct DCFs to remove them immediately.

As per court directions, such installations put up by resort owners should be removed immediately as they can injure elephants and other wildlife. The next hearing for this matter is on November 27.Speaking to The New Indian Express, Chief Wildlife Warden C Jayaram said, “We will start identifying such installations by resorts. The local DCFs will be instructed to remove them immediately. We have to find the areas where there are such electric fences/barbed wires.”

Elephant corridors

The state forest department is in the process of securing some critical elephant corridors in the state by purchasing land from farmers. This is being done under the Right of Passage - National Elephant Corridors Project in collaboration with Wildlife Trust of India. The Doddasampige corridor connecting MM hills sanctuary with BRT tiger reserve has been secured with the purchase of 25 acres. The Forest Department will now proceed to secure the Mudahalli corridor, that is contiguous with Kerala, and the Chamrajanagar-Talamalai corridor, that is contiguous with Tamil Nadu.

To boost this project, the idea of private conservancies was rejected for securing corridors, Jayaram added. “In case farmers come together in a group and want to convert their lands, we could have broadened the corridor. However, some people have objected to this concept but they have not put forward definite reasons for opposing private conservancies and so this idea was mooted.”

Rising electrocution cases

In the last two years, Karnataka has witnessed many incidents where elephants/leopards/tigers were electrocuted by illegal electric fencing near the elephant corridors of Bandipur, MM Hills, BRT and Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. Since January 2017, 18 elephants/leopards/tigers have been electrocuted in Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Chamrajnagara, Kodagu and other districts.

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