GUWAHATI: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today met the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Prakash Javadekar to submit proposals from Meghalaya Government for in-situ conservation of wildcats, and preservation of high-quality elephant corridors in the state.
“Met with Hon’ble Union Minister for @moefcc, Sh. @PrakashJavdekarJi. Discussed proposals submitted by #Meghalaya Govt. pertaining to in-situ conservation of wild cats, conservation of high-quality elephant corridors, etc. We are hopeful of the Ministry’s consideration & support,” tweeted the Chief Minister.
It may be mentioned that unabated habit fragmentation has resulted in rapid decrease in the number of wildcats in the hill state where man-elephant conflict too has reached an alarming proportion especially in Garo hills region.
Wild elephants being long raging animals prefers to move to distant locations in search of fodder and water long their traditional migration corridors through the forest.
However, unabated destruction of forest by human beings have fragmented the migration corridors of elephants leading to conflict between the animal and human beings settled on its traditional migration corridors.
Moreover, destruction of forests has compelled wild elephants to stray into human habitats in search of food that results in crop damage and raiding of human settlements.