WATCH | Elephant seen roaming on main road near Karnataka's Srimangala

As per the state forest department, most human-animal conflicts in Karnataka are reported from areas like Bannerghatta, Chamarajanagara, Mysuru, Kodagu and Hassan to the Chikkamagaluru belt.

An elephant was spotted walking on the main road on Wednesday near Karnataka's Srimangala, ANI reported, adding a video shared by the state forest department.

Human-animal conflicts have been a pressing problem in the southern state, with official data stating that one person on average gets killed in Karnataka due to such conflicts every week.

Most of these conflicts are reported from areas like Bannerghatta, Chamarajanagara, Mysuru, Kodagu and Hassan to the Chikkamagaluru belt.

As per officials, over 600 people have died in the last ten years from human-animal conflicts, with the majority of these deaths being caused by elephants.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has labelled it a 'blazing issue' before his government and in the latest state Budget, the Congress leader outlined steps the government was taking to safeguard people and crops situated in areas near forests, while also stressing on wildlife protection.

The total budget allotted to the wildlife wing of the forest department for 2024-25 is approximately Rs 151 crore, which is for all the wildlife-related works, including Rs 60 crore alone for the construction of railway barricades, one of the major preventive measures to minimise human-elephant conflicts.

"Poaching has come down, animals are increasing and the grassland which were available are now getting invaded by the weeds like lantana ... So, animals come out. Then there is a conflict … to address the issue, we need to have proper barricades on the boundary of the forest. We need to have rail barricades, solar fencing, and elephant-proof trench," a forest official said, adding "Besides that, we also need to improve the habitat inside the forest…we need to improve the quality of forest, remove the weeds, we need to improve the water levels by moisture conservation works, lot of such works are required -- be it strengthening the anti-poaching camps in forest area or controlling forest fire and we need money for all that."

(With PTI inputs)