Chamarajanagara: Karnataka Forest department has a challenging task to safeguard the increasing animal population in the famous Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
It was estimated that since the last three decades the tiger, elephant and leopard population has increased in Bandipur, while on the other hand in some forest areas the number of wild animals has decreased.
Forest officials said that in some of the forest areas in other States the population of Tiger and Cheetah were reducing, but this scenario is different in Karnataka.
According to Bandipur Tiger Reserve Director S R Natesh the situation is different in Bandipur where the animal population has increased as more space is available.
He said that as per the data available in the 1020 sq km area 2500 elephants, 173 tigers, more than 300 leopards and other animals are reported.
It was a challenging task for the forest officials to safeguard the wild animals like elephants, Tigers and leopards which have been living in their territorial areas. As per the 2019 tiger census in Karnataka there are 524 tigers, second highest in the country and last the first place with only two tigers differences.
Karnataka has the highest number of 6049 elephants in the country. In Bandipur alone the number of elephants is 2500, more than expected in the 1020 sq km area so there are so many wild animals living due to the good environment. (UNI)