Jumbo menace: Planters, ryots to take delegation to President

Coffee planters and farmers here, have decided to take a delagation to President of India Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Governor Vajubai R Vala and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who also holds the finance portfolio seeking solution towards their long pending demands.

This was decided during a meeting of planters and farmers on the topic ‘Permanent Solutions to Elephant Menace’ organised by Ammathi Raitha Sangha at Ammathi Kodava Samaja at Siddapura, Kodagu district, on Thursday. The resolution passed during the meeting includes: demand for permanent solution by both Central and the state governments to elephant menace, Rs 300 crore relief towards damage to life and crops, Rs 500 crore towards creation of drinking water and feed for animals in the wild, encouragement to farmers in Malnad region to grow paddy.

Prior to the meeting, senior manager from Tata Aramanamada Chittiappa and his colleague Karthik explained about the measures taken them to mitigate elephant attack, with a power- point presentation. The duo said that as elephant is associated with the heritage of the country, Tata is a signatory of ‘Male Kaadu Mythri’ agreement, promising no harm to elephants. However, there is a need to devise a strategy along with the government to check man animal conflict, they said. According to the available statistics, as many as 102 lives have been lost in a period of 14 years from 1992 to 2016, followed by loss of 24,727 hectares of agriculture land due to elephant raids. The state Forest department has already submitted a proposal to the government seeking Rs 260 crore to take measures.

Suresh, a planter, charged that the wild animals are forced to stray out of the forest and raid agriculture fields and residential areas for food, due to rapid deforestation. He held the government responsible for the current situation, accusing them of having a unholy nexus with timber lobby from the past 50 years.

Another planter Uddapanda Jagath regretted that, “Jumbo menace has turned into an epidemic. Had the authorities concerned taken timely action by planting saplings that could have produced sufficient feed for wild animals, against planting teak and other trees, the situation would not have gone out of hands.”

Acchandira Bopanna from Nanjarayapattana Nagarika Horata Samithi said, “Apart from providing relief amount, the government should also compensate for the damages suffered in elephant attack”.

Ajjamada Shankru Nachappa expressed his displeasure over what he described as meagre compensation of Rs 200 per coffee plant fixed by the Forest department. It takes not less than  six years to plants to yield and spend several thousands of rupees towards nurturing them, he added. Raitha Sangha president K U Ganapathi, secretary U S Jagath and legal advisor Biddanda Subbaiah were present on the occasion.