BANGALORE: The 57th Wildlife week celebrations ended on Monday.A valedictory function was held at the Chowdaiah Memorial Hall in which the Governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj was the chief guest.Forest Minister C P Yogeshwar, Lok Sabha Member D B Chandregowda and MLA C N Ashwath Narayan were also present along with other officials from the Forest Department in the programme. Governor Bhardwaj released a book titled “Human- Elephant Conflict” on the occasion and gave away prizes to winners of drawing and painting competitions conducted by the Forest Department. Apeksha Pai from Vidyaniketan School won first prize in the middle schoollevel drawing Competition.Stressing the need to properly rehabilitate adivasis from forest reserves, Bhardwaj asked the State Government to give adivasis land on priority basis.“NREGS has a lot of money, use it for the adivasis who will be displaced.Set up schools for them. They must not be denied a good compensation,” he said.Speaking on the efforts of the Forest Department to conserve wildlife, Forest Minister Yogeshwar said that the ban on movement of traffic through Bandipur must be extended by 3 more hours. “Animals come out at sunset, they do not follow timings, we must extend the ban by 2-3 more hours,” he said.The current ban on vehicular traffic inside Bandipur is between 9 pm and 6 am.“Karnataka today stands first in the country in a recent tiger estimation survey carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India. We have overtaken Madhya Pradesh,” said Chief Wildlife Warden B k Singh. He also mentioned that tribals are being relocated at Nagarhole in efforts to make the reserve inviolate.
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