Bengaluru: After a long 23 years, the Karnataka government will move and move around 400 tribal families from Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, utilizing funds intended to develop green cover in the state.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has directed the country to speed up the process – the first for Karnataka.
Each family is expected to get the facilities and benefits of Rs 15 Lakh as the state government enters the corpus of the management of compensation funds and planning authorities (Campa).
Development came in the background of the petition submitted to the Union Minister for the recent Bhupender Yadav environment by Siddharth Goenka, a member of the Karnataka state wildlife council.
“We have directed the State Forest Authority to submit a proposal to take advantage of Campa funds for tribal family relocation,” SP Yadav, Director General of Forests (Tiger Project) and NTCA member secretary, said in a letter to Goenka.
Voluntary resettlement of the tribes in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve began in 1998 but so far, only 812 families were moved, minus the benefits they promised.
Group groups in the National Park are Jenukubas, Bettakurubas, Yeraster and Soligas.
PK Ramu, a tribal leader from Hunsur, said more than 3,400 tribal families voluntarily moved from the core area of the reserve forest in MySuru and Kodagu Regency after the introduction of the 1972 wildlife law (protection).
Even though they were promised by homes, agricultural land and other facilities .
, the government in a row failed to provide, due to lack of funds, he said.
“Now NTCA has asked the state to take advantage of Campa funds, there is a silver line that is visible.” Goenka said the central government had transferred around 1,300 crore from Campa funds to Karnataka to relocate people from protected areas but funds have not been utilized.
Five other tiger reserves – Mahadeshwara, Bandipur and Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) in the district of Chamarajanagar; Bhadra in Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga and Dandeli in Uttara Kannada – are in the process of submitting a proposal to rehabilitate 3,000 families settled in the core field.
“This effort will be an important achievement in providing social justice to tribal people who are robbed in tiger reserves and protected areas because they are considered a threat to wildlife due to increasing human-animal conflicts, while ensuring consolidation of critical wildlife habitat,” said Wildlife.
The latest data shows that 153 deaths due to human-animal conflicts were reported in the state in the last four years while 581 people were injured.
Thirteen people suffer from permanent disability.
The number of such examples is the highest in Kodagu and Hassan, and most of the victims are tribes.
Between 2011 and 2020, the Government in a row to build 150 houses in Shettihalli, 130 in Hebbale, 70 in Mastigudi and 280 houses in Nagapura to reciminate tribes but there were not many takers because of poor facilities and benefits.
K’Taka to relocate 400 tribal families from Nagarahole
