Guwahati, June 15: A group of ‘Village Champions’ and nokmas in West Garo Hills (WGH) were sensitised on the need to facilitate human-elephant coexistence and the prevalent issue of human-elephant conflicts (HEC), during a training workshop organised by biodiversity conservation organisation, Aaranyak on Wednesday.
The programme was held at Bondukmali village on the office premises of the Integrated Village Cooperative Society in West Garo Hills district.
Village champions are members of local communities engaged in raising community awareness and facilitating community cooperation for promoting human-elephant coexistence at the village level under a collaborative project being implemented by Aaranyak in partnership with the British Asian Trust (BAT).
Aaranyak has been implementing the project both in Assam and the WGH landscape in Meghalaya, comprising villages in the Photamati area and Bondukmali, Borogobal and Jamdangre.
Human-elephant conflict has been prevalent in this area since 2013.
‘Village champions’ and nokmas from these project villages, inhabited by a mixed population of indigenous communities including Garos, Rabhas and Bodos, participated and interacted in the programme.
Senior officials from Aaranyak comprising Jayanta Pathak, Anjan Baruah and project personnel Vendo Theodore, Subhas Rabha and Bijoy Kalita, along with an intern from Azim Premji University, attended the programme.
Pathak made a presentation on the character and traits of wild elephants, while Baruah gave a presentation on human-elephant conflict and various mitigation measures, including lemon bio-fences.
Theodore spoke about the process of payment of compensation to the victims of human-elephant conflicts by the authorities.