Guwahati, May 1: Premier biodiversity conservation organisation, Aaranyak, as a part of its sustained research-driven efforts for mitigation of human-elephant conflicts (HEC) and facilitation of human-elephant coexistence in Assam and Meghalaya, conducted a training-cum-sensitisation workshop for ‘village champions’ from 15 targeted HEC hotspots in Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts in Dibrugarh.
‘Village champions’ are local youths selected from the villages where a team from Aaranyak is working to facilitate coexistence between humans and elephants. They will help deliver the outreach programme to raise awareness about elephants, avoiding human-elephant conflict, and conservation.
With the phenomenon of human-elephant conflict becoming more discerning every year, there is an urgent need for creating awareness among the communities on effective ways to tackle and cope with HEC situations.
For this purpose, Aaranyak has created a pool of ‘village champions’ in 20 elephants-affected villages across five districts – Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia of eastern Assam and West Garo Hills of Meghalaya.
The workshop on Friday was conducted by a team of resource persons from Aaranyak led by senior conservation scientist Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar.
Addressing the workshop, Lahkar briefed the ‘village champions’ about the crucial role they could play in mitigating the human-elephant conflict in hotspot areas. He explained in detail about responsibilities of ‘village champions’ as well as the procedure of getting compensation from the government against crop and house damage caused by wild elephants.
He called upon the ‘village champions’ to sensitise villagers in their respective villages about the procedure so that affected villagers in HEC hotspots could get such compensation prompt.
“Elephants are not entering into human settlements. In the true sense, human beings have occupied elephant habitats,” said Jayanta Kumar Pathak, senior conservation educator at Aaranyak, while interacting with participants in the workshop which was organised under a project sponsored by the British Asian Trust and Darwin Initiative.
He also interacted with the participants on the inseparable human-elephant relationship in respect of nature conservation, religious and cultural traditions.
Anjan Baruah, a senior conservation manager at Aaranyak, made a presentation on the benefits and management of low-cost community-managed solar-power fences for HEC mitigation and coexistence.