Guwahati: The Forest Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah, today chaired a virtual meeting with senior Forest Department officials and District Forest Officers at Aranya Bhawan in Panjabari, Guwahati, to review key departmental issues, with particular emphasis on reducing human-elephant conflict.
During the meeting, several important decisions were taken to strengthen measures for preventing human-elephant conflict and providing timely assistance to affected families and farmers.
The number of ‘Gaj Mitras’ will be increased to between 150 and 200 to improve monitoring and help prevent encounters between humans and wild elephants. Each Gaj Mitra will also receive an honorarium of Rs 1,000.
The meeting further decided that families of people killed in wild elephant attacks would receive compensation of Rs 6 lakh within two days of the incident. Similarly, farmers whose paddy crops are damaged by wild elephants will receive compensation of Rs 8,000 per bigha within three days.
Apart from human-elephant conflict, the meeting also discussed revenue-related matters and the regulation of timber industries.
The deliberations focused on improving the efficiency of the Forest Department, strengthening its monitoring mechanisms and ensuring better coordination among officials to address emerging challenges.
The decisions are aimed at improving the response to human-wildlife conflict while ensuring timely relief for affected communities.