GUWAHATI: Assam-based wildlife and biodiversity conservation organisation, Aaranyak has mooted a coordinated approach among government departments to tackle man-elephant conflict in the state.
The conflict, as a matter of fact has assumed alarming proportions of late, with as many as 60 elephant deaths, mainly caused by train hits, reported in Assam in the past 10 months, causing concern among wildlife and conservation circles across the region.
“We are deeply concerned at the increasing number of elephant deaths in the state and while we have undertaken site-specific measures to ensure mitigation of the conflict and have been advocating for policy changes, the same needs to be replicated in a much bigger scale in the state,” Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, secretary general and chief executive officer of Aaranyak, informed the media on the occasion of the biodiversity conservation society’s 29th foundation day on Sunday.
Listing out the causes of the conflict, Talukdar attributed habitat loss, dearth of food and growing human habitation among the other factors compounding the problem, thereby compelling herds of elephants to move around seasonally.
He also called for greater awareness among the people to help mitigate the problem and prevent elephant deaths as well. “We have in this regard sensitised students, teachers and villagers over the years. More youths need to be encouraged to engage themselves in biodiversity conservation,” the CEO said.
Experts from Aaranyak also called for a multi-dimensional approach in preventing the conflict. “We are in fact testing certain plants which are not consumed by elephants and encouraging people to plant them around their houses as the herds generally intrude residential areas in search of food,” Bibhuti P Lahkar, an elephant conservation expert of Aaranyak, said.
Lahkar said that departments such as agriculture and power along with forest must coordinate to mitigate the problem. Most of the damages inflicted by herds take place on farmlands while low overhead electricity wires at times prove fatal for the jumbos.
Assam currently has around 5000 elephants in the wilds.
Aaranyak, which has expanded its conservation work to Bengal, also touched upon issues such as water and climate induced disasters in the region while calling for proactiveness among policy making agencies to tackle calamities induced by climate change and acute urban water crisis.
The organisation furtger warned against interventions such as building mega dams and river dredging without assessing the impact on climate and environment while calling for introspection as there were livelihood issues to be taken into account as well.
