Guwahati, June 16: Premier biodiversity conservation organization Aaranyak
( www.aaranyak.org ) in collaboration with Loharghat Forest Range Office under
Kamrup (W) Forest Division of Assam Forest Department and with cooperation from
the community members installed five solar street lights at different human elephant
conflict (HEC) prone locations at Rangamati village.
These solar street lights are expected reduce chances of direct confrontation between
villagers and wild elephants during night hours thereby secure lives of villagers.
The Loharghat Range Officer, Nayanjyoti Das, took the initiative to install the solar
street lights as a mitigation measure. From Aaranyak Assistant Manager Anjan Baruah
and field staff Bijoy Kalita oversaw the installation of solar lights on the ground.
Rangamati village is situated in Kamrup district of Assam under Loharghat Forest
Range while adjacent villages such as Satpur, Bhagabatipara, Gosaihat, etc., are located
near the Maliata Reserve and Rani Reserve Forest and adjacent to Meghalaya border.
The human-elephant conflict has been there in the area for over four year. The
elephants come to these villages from Meghalaya area and Rani Reserve Forest in
search of food. Elephants usually come into the villages and forage on standing crops
and sometimes damage property every season.
Two people have died in HEC incidents in this area so far. On the other hand, two
elephants died due to a train accident as the railway track is very close to the Maliata
Reserve and the Rangamati village area.
A small herd of elephants containing about six elephants, has been roaming around the
area. As this is a new issue for the villagers, the people get panicked.
Aaranyak and Loharghat Range have been collaborating to control the HEC mitigation
and facilitate coexistence. On the public demand, the Forest Department recently drove
away the elephants towards Rani Reserve Forest. But the herd came back again.
Aaranyak has provided a number of rechargeable torch lights to the local elephant
committees, VDPs, etc., as a mitigation tool through some awareness programmes
organized with the help of the Forest Department. Beyond that, Aaranyak has
participated in several community awareness programnes organized by the Loharghat
Range.
