Human-elephant conflict rising, Forest Deptt demands inclusion in elephant project
| Date :21-Apr-2019 |
By Ankita Garg:
With increase in human-elephant conflict as well as tougher monitoring of erratic elephants in several parts of Madhya Pradesh, the Forest Department wrote to Union Ministry for Forest, Environment and Climate Change to include the State in elephant project. The proposal has been made with hope to get a separate fund for the elephant monitoring. Forest officials said, recently groups of elephants entered to several districts of Madhya Pradesh from Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Assam. These rampaging elephants are errant in behaviour and they stray out in the villages anonymously. To control immediate damage, forest staff somehow drove the herd and in this situation villagers too come out to deal with the elephants. To prevent elephants from being annoyed, foresters get truckloads of banana, sugarcane, jackfruit etc as a feast for them. Sometimes they also call fire brigade to sprinkle water on the elephants to keep them entertained and engaged.
Forest Department said that they have limited staff for the tiger reserves and sanctuaries. Districts like Sidhi, Umaria and Shahdol are very much affected with the damage by caused by herd of elephants. Elephants have destroyed several acres of crops and houses in these districts. Forest Department said that they are spending large amount on care taking of elephants but problems is getting worse. Concerned over the need of hour, Forest Department has now proposed the Government to include the state of Madhya Pradesh in elephant project. After approving the project, Government will be releasing a separate fund to the State for elephant management.
At present, there is no separate provision of fund for managing elephants. Territorial (general forest circle) or conserved area staff is monitoring these elephants. With each group of elephants, two vehicles and four staff is being assigned. There are three shifts of employees in 24 hours. Forest officials said after adding the state in elephant project, separate fund will be released for their monitoring and department will be recruiting separate staff for the elephants. Talking to ‘The Hitavada’, Alok Kumar, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (APCCF) said, “Elephants are damaging the crops and villages on large scale. We have assigned staff to monitor them but it is very tough to control the errant elephants. They are very moody and no one can stop them midway. Concerned over the need of hour, we have demanded Union Government to include the state in elephant project so that additional fund would be released.”
He further said, patrolling team has been assigned to monitor them. Villages coming on the way of elephant are being put on alert. Recently, a group of 45 elephants entered to the Sidhi district of state from Chhattisgarh jungles. Last week, one of the elephants killed a woman in Kusumi Janpad. After this incident, villagers of the area are angry with the Forest Department. Besides, two groups of elephants are active in Bandhavgarh for past five months. The two groups of elephants move towards Umaria jungle. On October 2018, a group of five elephants created ruckus in Umaria jungle but the group was small, so employees rescued the four elephants. At present, group of elephants are being trained at Bandhavgarh for further management in tiger safaris. Elephants from Assam, Chhattisgarh and Odisha are making mess in Madhya Pradesh. In a recent meeting held with authorities in New Delhi, subject experts suggested that there is no solution of this problem.
They said these elephants can be monitored and trained well with the help of additional funds. They also suggested forest officials not to bother elephants group by stopping them mid way as they will be annoyed. Director Incharge and CCF of Bandhavgarh National Park A K Joshi said, “Elephants have become a big headache as their management is becoming tough. It is not easy to make them stop as they stray out anywhere and when anyone tries to intervene them, they get annoyed. We have no other option except assigning additional staff for them. Patrolling team is ensuring their way clear and they informed villagers before their arrival so that they can get aware.” According to Forest department, during September 2018 MP Forest Department rescued the rampaging herd of elephants that had entered district Sidhi after crossing Mawai river from Chhattisgarh. This was possibly the first successful rescue operation of elephants in the state and the country.
The herd of elephants had first halted in the jungle near Kundour village of Sanjay Tiger Reserve. They tore down the huts in the village at night and ate up the food grain kept there and later destroyed the crops in the fields. The tiger reserve management put up solar lights on the borders of the village immediately to stop the elephants from entering the village. Continuing their destruction spree in other villages, the elephants reached around 15 km radius of Sidhi headquarters. The forest squad kept 24X7 vigilance on the elephants through their teams. Experts were called from West Bengal to drive away the elephants. Villagers were alerted through posters, banners, beating of drums etc. Despite giving information of methods of protection, the rampaging elephants killed two villagers.