One person gets killed in man-animal conflict in Karnataka per week, reveals official data

Bengaluru: One person on average gets killed in human-animal conflict every week in Karnataka, reveals official data.

According to forest department, such conflicts are mostly reported in the southern part of the state starting from Bannerghatta, Chamarajanagara, Mysuru, Kodagu and Hassan to Chikkamagaluru belt. More than 600 people have lost their lives due to attacks by wild animals, majority of them being from elephants, over the last decade, officials said.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has termed such conflicts as a “blazing issue” before his government. According to the data shared by the forest department 618 people have died in human-animal conflict in Karnataka between 2010-11 and 2023-24 (up to March six this year). These include 416 deaths from attacks by elephants, 38 by leopards, 36 by bears/sloth bears, 34 by tigers, and 32 by wild boars. While presenting the state budget in February, Siddaramaiah outlined measures being taken towards protecting people residing in the areas bordering forests and crops from wild animals, while protecting wildlife. To address man-animal conflict, Rs 100 crore was provided in the previous budget (2023-24) for construction of railway barricades and around 78 km of railway barricades were constructed. In the current year (2024-25) also, priority will be given to construct barricades, the government said.

The total budget allotted to 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 construction of railway barricades, one of the major preventive measures to combat human-elephant conflict.

Pointing out that animals are moving out of forests because their habitat is getting disturbed, a forest officer said a lot of weeds have started growing inside forests.