Poor plight of forest department in Udalguri as human-elephant conflict claims lives

MANGALDAI: The ongoing human-elephant conflict has taken a serious turn along the foothills of Indo-Bhutan border forest areas in Udalguri district as a total of 16 innocent villagers were killed by the wild pachyderms in 2018 till date. With the killing of three villagers on a single day on November 19, the month of November has witnessed killing of eight villagers.

Earlier, two villagers each were killed in October and September, one in July, two in May while the month of April had witnessed the killing of one villager. The human habitation on the elephant corridor, illegal occupation of forest land, setting up of stone quarry in elephant corridor and inadequate staff of the forest department in Udalguri district have also contributed to the ongoing human-elephant conflict. Significantly, till date only three pachyderms have reportedly been killed in 2018.

The Dhansiri Forest Division under BTAD was created on January 19, 2006 and since then the division, as per the existing rule of the modified six schedule of BTAD, has been looking after all three wings of Assam Forest i.e. Wildlife, Territorial and Social Forestry. Besides Social Forestry, the Dhansiri Division has been looking after three reserve forests, namely Khalingdwar, Bhairabkunda and Rowta under the Territorial Wing and the Bornodi Wildlife Sanctuary (BWLS), famed for the rare species of Pigmy Hog and Hispid Hare under Wildlife Wing.

In the entire division, only two Deputy Range Officers, 16 Forester I and eight Forester II, 33 Forest Guards and two game watchers are engaged in the conservation of wildlife and protection of forest land in the division as the front staff. Interestingly, the division is facing acute shortage of 17 Forest Guards. Of the 33 existing Forest Guards, majority are reportedly either aged or physically not fit to be engaged in wildlife protection. At present, the wildlife or the forest cover in Udalguri district under the Dhansiri Forest Division seems to be nobody’s business.

On the other hand, though the areas under Rowta Reserve Forest have been declared and notified as Reserve Forest quite long back, due to the indifferent attitude of the forest officials in the rank of Forest Range Officers, Divisional Forest Officers to the CCF, PCCF, major portion of the areas of this reserve forest has been transformed into several villages set up by illegal encroachers 20 years back.

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