Guwahati, Sept 11: Skill in providing first-aid to victims of incidents of human-elephant conflict (HEC) among villagers in areas prone to HEC, is instrumental in prepare the community to face such adversity.
Prompted by the objective to train HEC prone villagers on first aid treatment to accident victims, premier biodiversity conservation organisation Aaranyak (www.aaranyak.org) conducted a first-aid training to enhance community preparedness at Hastinapur village under Baksa district on September 4 in collaboration with District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).
Around 30 villagers actively participated in the training that was coordinated by Aaranyak official Anjan Baruah who explained the participants about the need of first-aid treatment during accidental injury that might be due to HEC.
A team of volunteers of DDMA called “AAPDA MITRA” demonstrated various first-aid treatment methods that are applicable in different emergency situations.
The AAPDA MITRA team comprised of Ritupon Kalita, resource person and other member Gopal Krishna Das, Sachin Das, Utpal Rabha, Sanjit Daimari. Team leader Dalim Kalita coordinated the whole training program.
Lila Karki, President of Chaulkara Revenue Wild Protection NGO opened the training programme while Kishore Roy, Vice President of Chaulkara Revenue Wild Protection NGO, Netra Paudel, President of Pub Nikashi Unnayan Samity and Rudra Boral, Secretary of Pub Nikashi Unnayan Samity participated in the training programme. Conservationist Binoy Boro of Uttarkuchi, Allauddin Ahmed and Ishan Ali of Hedayetpur were present in the training programme.
Rubul Tanti of Aaranyak enlightened the participants on snake conservation and first-aid application on snake bite. Jiban Kumar Chetry, Abhijit Saikia, Reshma Nurzery and Rupam Gayari coordinated the programme.
Aaranyak team also held a meeting with the Elephant Conservation Network (ECN) members from of Subankhata area of Baksa district to appreciate their effort in sharing updates on elephant movement and patrolling. One of the ECN members shared his view on how Formation of the ECN has reduced HEC incidents in their area. The team helps the forest department’s elephant squad in chasing elephant from the villages several times.
The ECN members were facilitated with rechargeable torch lights to enhance their capacity in night patrolling and keep updating on elephant movements within their area of operation.