Overview

• Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre has directed the Karnataka Forest Department to prohibit grazing of cattle, goats and sheep in all state forest areas effective immediately.
• The ban seeks to prevent domestic animals from consuming newly sprouted seedlings, a practice that wildlife experts say impedes natural forest recovery and affects river systems.
• Officials highlight the risk of infectious diseases spreading from livestock to wild herbivores and warn that grazing pressures exacerbate fodder shortages for species like deer and elephants.
• The policy response follows the poisoning deaths of a tigress and her four cubs in the M. M. Hills Wildlife Sanctuary after villagers laced livestock carcasses with toxins in retaliation.
• Departments are preparing legal measures to block cross-border grazing incursions from Tamil Nadu after a Madras High Court order shifted herds into Karnataka’s protected areas.