Awareness Meet on Man-Elephant Conflict Held at Uparkhuti High School

A CORRESPONDENT

GORESWAR: As the man-elephant conflict has increased in and around the Indo- Bhutan boarder area under Tamulpur civil subdivision, the Baksa District Forest Department has come forward to organize awareness meetings among the people in association with the NGO Aaranyak for better management of wildlife, besides ensuring proper co-existence of human and wild animals in a suitable environment.

Accordingly, an awareness meeting was organized by Baksa District Forest Department in an active co-operation of an eco-club society of Goreswar, Green Trek and Adventure, at Uparkhuti High School on Sunday on the man-elephant conflict and to discuss mitigation of the problem.

The meeting was presided over by Tek Bahadur Chetry, Headmaster of Uparkhuti High School, and the welcome address and the purpose of the meeting was explained by Bhabesh Das, DFO of Baksa district, who said that the awareness meeting was aimed at educating the people about protection of wildlife and mitigating the man-elephant conflict in the area.

Addressing the participants, Bhaskar Pegu, the Deputy Commissioner of Baksa, said that population growth and resettlement programmes had produced fatal clashes between humans and elephants. An optimal ecological unit for elephants is the mosaic of diverse vegetation types, which can offer good shelter, optimal food and required water. Bee keeping, banana plantation and bamboo plantation in the affected area can be the methods of protection of wild elephants.

“This is an inclusive programme with active support from different stakeholders, including media representatives and local people of the border area. We hope that the project will yield the desired results,” he said. He also highlighted Bogamati in his speech as a beautiful picnic spot and a possible tourist spot and urged the people to make it plastic free during the picnic period.

Sharing inputs about his experience with the participants, the researcher of wildlife conservation and representative of the NGO Aaranyak, Abhijit Baruah described widely the identified causes of man-elephant conflict on slowing the loss of natural habitat, strengthening anti-poaching activities and curbing ivory trade, reducing conflicting factors between humans and elephants, and enhancing the capabilities of local wildlife authorities to conserve and manage elephants.

He also elaborately explained the mitigation methods of man-elephant conflict with some important points. Sujit Baglary, SDO (Civil) of Tamulpur subdivision, attended the awareness meeting and said, “We should not forget that the cases of man-elephant conflict have been increasing day by day in various parts of the Indo-Bhutan border on account of depletion of forest cover, besides shrinking of elephant corridors. Another important aspect is that animals have lost their habitant due to deforestation.”

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