Udupi, (The Hindu): B. Ramanath Rai, Minister for Forests and Environment, said on Saturday that the State government had informed the Centre that the former had rejected the K. Kasturirangan Report on Conservation of Western Ghats. He was speaking after inaugurating the Salumarada Thimmakka Vruksha Udyanavana, an urban tree park, at Yembattu Badagabettu near here.

Mr. Rai said that the government did not want to implement the recommendations of the report as the people were opposed to it. Though the Centre was interested in implementing the Project Tiger in the State, the latter had refused it because of public opposition, he said.

He said that as per a recent survey, Karnataka was ranked second in the country in the increase of forest cover. The State had the highest number of tigers, elephants and leopards in the country. But there have been increasing incidences of man-animal conflict in the State, he said.

Efforts are being made to keep wild animals out through solar fencing and had yielded mixed results. The elephants are used to using the same route or corridor for their travels and when this area was encroached, they entered villages, he said.

Under the Chinnara Vana Rakshane programme, schoolstudents were taken to forests, where they spent a day knowing about the flora and fauna and about environment protection. Mr. Rai said.