In the wake of heightened man-animal conflict in Mysore and Chamarajanagar Districts, the administration of both constituencies have upped the security for voters on Friday to protect them from attacks by wild animals.

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As many as 14 parliamentary constituencies in Karnataka go for the first phase of polling on Friday, and the Election Commission has taken the responsibility of providing security to voters from attacks by wild animals. Incidents of voters being attacked even by wild boars on the day of voting had been reported in the past. So, this time, as a means of pre- empting such attacks, additional security cover has been given  to as many as 52 polling booths in both Mysore and Chamarajanagar Districts which are infested with wild animals.

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These polling booths are located in Varuna, the constituency represented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, as well as  Hunsur, Nanjangud, HD Kote and Saragur. As many as eight teams of the forest personnel, each headed by a Deputy Range Forest Officer had been constituted to provide security at the polling stations. Each team has been put  incharge of five to six polling stations. The team would move in the surrounding areas in each polling booth to look out for the wandering wild jumbos, tigers and leopards, and alert the voters. The teams are given the necessary weapons to deal in case of emergency. Members from Leopard Task Force, Elephant Task Force and Tiger Task force had been drawn for this special duty.

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The team members would stay with the polling personnel till the EVMs are safely transported to the designated counting centers. This is being done to enable people to come out freely and exercise their franchise.

Both Mysore and Chamarajanagar Districts have been identified as topping the man-animal conflict areas in the state. Many people had been killed by wild animals in recent past. Of late the menace of tigers has become an additional headache for the forest department. In the wake of a series of deaths of people in leopard attacks, the state government has constituted a leopard task force to deal with the new menace.

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