Govt taken jumbo menace seriously, says CM Bommai

The state government has taken the elephant menace seriously and has constituted the Elephant Task Forces to deal with the wild elephants, said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

Speaking to reporters at Halebeedu Helipad here on Wednesday, he said the elephants which had come here following drought for many years have not returned. Other reasons for the jumbo attack are human beings entering forests for some reasons and the climate change. It will be very difficult to disperse the herd of elephants. Since it is not correct to launch an operation after any single incident, the task force has been constituted to launch the operation regularly. Each task force is provided with training, vehicles, equipment and also established the control room. The job of the special force members is to patrol the elephant-infested areas regularly and push back them into forests. In case the wild elephants are more in number, then members of all the forces must join together and send back the jumbos into forests. The task force has been given directions to launch this operation for at least ten days. A sum of Rs 100 crore has been earmarked in this year’s budget for this purpose. A new kind of fence is being put up in Bandipur National park. The Elephant Corridor will be fully protected.

Bommai said a solatium of Rs 15 lakh is given to those killed in wild elephant attack and giving a job to a member of the deceased family will be seriously considered.

Reacting to the pressure cooker bomb blast, the CM said 18 sleeper cells were identified and sent to Tihar Jail. Coming here after undergoing training in neighboring state and in international border was continuous once. But after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, all such activities have stopped. Similar incidents had happened in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai and now it had been stopped. A special vigil has been kept on the sleeper cells in the coastal areas. A concerted effort is required to prevent. As home minister in the previous government, he had asked DGPs’ of all the Southern States to work in coordination as most of them cross the state border after committing the crime. Exchange of information is vital to check the sleeper cells. Once again he will write to the chief ministers of all states.

Reacting to Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah’s accusation of intelligence failure for the Mangaluru blast incident, the CM said incidents of such nature have happened in the past also. Many people from Bangladesh have come here and such persons were identified and deported. The Bangla border is very weak. Siiddaramaiah is aware of it but makes such statements for political purposes.