Most of us have heard of human-animal conflict. But here's a conflict of a different kind! Between elephants and the Forest Department at Bandipur National Park. To be specific, the stretch between Melukamanahalli and Kekkanahalli on the Mysore-Ooty Highway (NH 67).
This stretch is an important elephant area. On either side of the road are 16 sign boards made of concrete put up by the Forest Department, on wildlife conservation. Legally, people don't have the right to walk around freely inside the national park. Neither are vehicles allowed to be parked there.
So, why have these concrete boards been put up? Is there a need for them inside a national park, where people's movement is anyway restricted? The elephants seem to have realised this, as they have already trampled on at least four of them. But, the Forest Department is not one to give up. Wherever the boards have been demolished, new ones have come up, in record time. Also, to check elephants, the Department has erected sharp iron thorn-like structures. The iron could easily hurt the elephants or other species that could approach the cement structures.
Is it not ironic that the Forest Department should be doing this?
The elephant is a very sensitive species. And the Forest Department, more than anyone else, is aware of this fact. So, why this insistence on erecting the cement structures there? The irony is that there is shortage of funds to provide salaries regularly to forest guards and watchers, and provide them infrastructure such as boots and uniforms. The need of the hour is to focus energies and funds on such aspects rather than construct these cement blocks!