The activists of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti have urged that the officials who have misappropriated funds of the Bhadra Tiger Conservation Project should be dismissed.

They also staged a protest outside the office of the Forest Department in town on Monday in this regard. They took out a procession from the old taluk office till the protest venue, where they displayed placards that demanded that private organisations should not be given permission to carry out animal census and that the tiger census has already been carried out and needs to be stopped.

The Bhadra Tiger Conservation Project was implemented in 1993. The government released crores of rupees and has brought to effect stringent laws for the protection of wild animals. The Forest Department, however, has been showing an attitude of negligence by flouting norms, the protesters said in the memorandum that they submitted.

“The protection of wild animals is the duty of the Forest Department. No private organisation should be allowed to carry out any kind of activities in the forest. There is no need for private bodies to enter the forest on the pretext of research,” the protestors said.

Increased traffic“The movement of vehicles has increased after non-government organisations were given permission to conduct tiger census. This has caused disturbance to the free movement of wild animals. As the NGOs are halting in the forest during the nights, animals have made their way to the cities.

“The grants towards the conservation of wild animals are being misused. The government should initiate action and take strict measures against such misuse of funds. The Forest Department has not given appropriate answers to the queries asked under RTI and a complaint will be submitted to the Information Commission in this regard,” the protestors said.

DSS district convenors Srinivas and K P Rajaratnam spoke. Leaders Navin, Ramesh, Puttaswamy, Balakrishna, Poornesh, Viroopaksha and Rudresh were present among the protesters.