JOIN USRe-establishing elephant corridors and mitigating man-animal conflicts have been given a thrust in the budget. To achieve this, the government has allocated Rs 20 crore for the financial year 2016-17 to buy land from private parties.
A senior forest department official told Deccan Herald that in the wake of increasing man-animal conflicts, many private people had come forward to sell land in these areas, but the process faced hiccups due to of government policies. Now, with money being allocated for it in the budget, strengthening elephant corridors and mitigating conflicts will get a boost.
“The department has received many applications over the last couple of years from land owners and we were waiting for land acquisition. People want to hand over around 10,000 acres in Sakleshpur in Hassan district, where elephant conflicts are high and around six acres in Chikkamagaluru near Bhadra. There is a huge demand for land acquisition is in Kodagu, Chamarajanagar and Kannapura near Bandipur,” the official said.
The government is also encouraging NGOs, forest user agencies and corporates to buy land and hand it over to the forest department. So far, no corporates have came forward to buy land. Now, the government is also keen on easing procedures to encourage corporates, the official said.
The budget for the forest sector has increased to Rs 1,609 crore from Rs 1,300 crore, last year. Apart from this, a supplementary budget will also be allocated based on the needs in November. The official said this will help strengthen corridors and develop the recently declared bear sanctuary in Timlapur forest in Madhugiri of Tumakuru district. The fund will also be used for plantation works. The government said 2.5 crore saplings will be distributed this fiscal. Also, a 150-acre tree park dedicated to Devaraj Urs will be created near Hunsur. Here, thrust will be on bamboo cultivation and creating awareness.
To reduce dependency on firewood, the government has also approved a proposal to provide 50% LPG subsidy to people belonging to general category living in and around sensitive areas of Western Ghats and forest reserves, initially around Chamarajanagar and Uttara Kannada districts. Earlier, this was restricted to the SC/ ST category.