Maha reserves forest for elephants from K'taka

Bengaluru/Mumbai: The Maharashtra government notified almost 3,000 hectares of forest land as a reserve for elephants who had wandered into Sindhudurg district from neighbouring Karnataka almost two decades ago.

Samadhan Chavan, Deputy Conservator of Forests of Sawantwadi in Sindhudurg, told PTI it was the first time that a forest has been reserved for elephants in the state.

The notification said 2,953.38 hectares of forest land in Sindhudurg would be a “reserved forest” for “conservation of tiger, elephant and leopard”.

“This is a huge step as nowhere in Maharashtra a forest or any other area was reserved for elephants till now,” Chavan said.

Sindhudurg shares borders with Karnataka and Goa, and the jumbos were spotted near the fields close to Tillari forests almost two decades ago.

Initially it was seen as an auspicious sign, but villagers soon realised that the animals had migrated from Karnataka in search of food and were devouring farm produce.

Resultant man-animal conflict over the years led to the deaths of seven people in Sindhudurg and 13 in Kolhapur, where the jumbos visited Chandgad tehsil for food, forest department data shows.

On Tuesday, the Revenue and Forest departments issued a notification under Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 which earmarked 2,953.38 hectares, or 29.53 square kilometres, of forest land as Tillari Conservation Reserve.

The area is also the location of a major dam.

Local Shiv Sena MLA Deepak Kesarkar said the idea was to develop the area on the lines of Periyar reserve in Kerala, where people can be taken to the backwater in boats to watch elephants.

“We will plant fodder crops inside the forest for elephants so that they do not damage farms,” he said.

Asked about local people opposing the presence of elephants, Kesarkar said the animals had come from Karnataka due to shortage of fodder and water which they found across the state border.

“We must live with them,” he added.

Deputy conservator Chavan said the notification empowers the forest department to invoke stringent provisions of the Wildlife Act if elephants are harmed.

“No longer can people hold protests demanding that the elephants be sent back. They officially have a place in the state now,” Chavan said.

There were over 2,000 cases of crop damage and the government had increased the compensation from time to time.

But the pachyderms being migrants from Karnataka was no longer an issue, said Chavan who had submitted the proposal to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray recommending creation of a reserve for them.