Bison menace worries farmers

The bison are straying into the plantations in various villages of N R Pura taluk in search of food and water.

The bison menace has increased in Seethooru, Kamalapura, Konodi, Balekoppa, Gadikere, Talamakki areas. Herds of bison stray into farmland during the night and damage arecanut plants, banana and coconut trees.

The arecanut saplings in the farmland of Venkataramana,
Y S Radhakrishna, Y S Ganesh, Y S Subrahmanya and Narayanamurthy at Kamalapura have been damaged by a herd of bison. Over hundreds of yielding arecanut trees have been damaged in the plantation of Ramesh, Rajamurthy, Subrahamanya at Talamakki.

The bison that move around the plantation create huge pits. Earlier, they were scared of human beings. Now, they do not run away on seeing people. There are at least 40 bison in Talamakki Estate, according to villagers.

“When I opened the door of the house after hearing the barking of dogs in the night, I saw a few bison standing on the front yard of my house,” said Sripad, a farmer from Yadagere.

In spite of the fence around the plantation, the bison jump the fence and enter inside. Over 50 arecanut trees have been damaged.

As the Forest Department had planted acacia and eucalyptus, the bison do not get any grass to consume inside the forest. They stray into plantations in search of grass. The Forest Department should lay trenches to prevent them from entering into villages, said Talamakki farmer Ramesh.

Deputy RFO Varun C Shetty said, “The heard of bison enter villages in search of food and water. They also come in search of jackfruit. There is no grass inside the forest. Trenches have been sanctioned to Kamalapura to check the entry of elephants. Once the trenches are laid, the bison will not enter.”