The Forest Department will seek additional funds for prevention of man-animal conflict in villages bordering forest areas, Minister for Forests and Ecology Eshwara Khandre said in the Legislative Council here on Monday.
He said that work on around half of the proposed 240 km of elephant corridor has been completed.
“The rest will be completed soon. We have funds of around ₹100 crore for prevention of conflicts. We have asked the State government to double the funds,” he said.
He was responding to a question from Congress member K. Harish Kumar about prevention of such conflicts and compensating families of farmers who died in such conflicts.
Mr. Khandre said that the government is doing all it can to prevent them.
“We are building elephant corridors, erecting solar tentacle fencing around fields in the borders of jungles and we have released crop loss relief to 90% of affected farmers. We have also relaxed the norms for releasing compensation to farmers who were killed in these conflicts. We have dropped the idea of putting up fences along both sides of national highways that pass through the forests, as it can lead to increased conflict,” the Minister said.
