Solatium to martyred foresters hiked to Rs 50 lakh: Bommai

BENGALURU:  Forest department staff who lose their lives while on duty will receive a compensation of Rs 50 lakh, up from Rs 30 lakh, announced CM Basavaraj Bommai here on Sunday. After paying respects to martyred forest officials on the National Forest Martyrs Day-2022, organised by the Forest Department, Bommai said his predecessor BS Yediyurappa had hiked the solatium from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh and it will go up to Rs 50 lakh now.

Besides, the government will also provide jobs on compassionate grounds to family members of martyred officers. “You protect the forest, the government will protect you,” he said. Plans are afoot to increase the forest cover from 21 per cent to 30 per cent in the state. Karnataka has over 4 lakh hectares of barren land where afforestation can be done, while native species can be planted in hilly regions. This can be the best gift to the next generation and a new model will be evolved to increase the forest cover, Bommai said.

Karnataka was the first state to present an environment budget and Rs 100 crore has been allocated. The government has given the approval for the action plan, while an afforestation programme will be taken up at Rs 100 crore. A special plan has been chalked out to conserve ecologically sensitive areas, he said. Bommai asked the forest department to strive towards reducing man-animal conflicts. The maximum number of incidents involve elephants and the government has released Rs 100 crore to evolve a system to protect people. The experiment of putting a fence is going on at Bandipur, he said.