Schedule a meeting with CM Chandrababu Naidu to discuss Tungabhadra: DCM DK Shivakumar requests Andhra DCM Pawan Kalyan
Bengaluru: Bharath Anjanappa'Schedule a meeting with the Andhra Pradesh Chief Ministers to discuss the use of our share of Tungabhadra river water,' DCM DK Shivakumar requested Andhra Pradesh DCM Pawan Kalyan.
DCM Shivakumar was speaking at a program to hand over Karnataka's Kumki elephants to Andhra Pradesh held at the Vidhana Soudha premises on Wednesday.
'Good luck to Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, who has come to the elephant handover program. May the relationship between Andhra and our state continue to improve. We need to discuss the use of our share of 24 TMC water with your Chief Minister. You should only take up this and schedule a meeting,' he said.
'The elephant is the form of Vinayaka. We are handing over six elephants trained to the Andhra Pradesh government so that they can remove all obstacles in Andhra Pradesh. Our state has the power to send as many elephants as it needs. Karnataka is rich in animal wealth. The next generation should witness this wealth. My village is adjacent to Tamil Nadu. I saw more than 50 elephants clinging to the wall of my house as a child. I also have a video of it,' he said.
'Training elephants is a difficult task. You may have seen a movie about Khedda in the past. Those were the days when elephants were chased and caught and tamed. We should work to protect our wildlife. After a fight with Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre, 50 percent of our forest area has been covered with railway fencing. Many of our farmers have lost their lives to elephants,' he said.
'Our forest department has restricted only jungle lodges and resorts to conduct safaris in the Kabini forest area. It is a good thing that private individuals are not allowed. I went to Kabini to celebrate my birthday. I had not been to Kabini before. The forest department did show tigers and leopards. Later, in the backwaters, they showed more than 150 elephants in just half an hour. Officials said that there are more than two lakh deer here.'
"Earlier, when Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi came to the state during Dussehra, I had arranged for them to have a picnic in a place called Orange County. I was unable to go due to various reasons," he said.
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