HT Correspondent
BOKO, April 2: Kamrup West Division Forest Office organized an awareness meet on Human-Elephant conflict mitigation in collaboration with Bondapara forest range and World Wide Fund (WWF) for nature, India at Singra-Palahpara Cultural Stage under Singra forest range on Saturday.
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The meeting was funded by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).
The meeting was presided over by the Kamrup West Division DFO Dimpy Bora, where the Boko Constituency MLA Nandita Das took part as a chief guest, WWF officials Hiten Baishya and David Smith took part as a resource person.
More than 30 village headmen took part in the awareness meet under the Singra and Bondapara Range.
The main motive of the awareness meet is to decrease the man and elephant conflicts and the solutions for decreasing.
WWF official Hiten Baishya requested the village headman to observe why elephants entered their villages and then find a solution.
As part of the solution, Baishya said, “Most of the time elephants entered the villages and destroyed the paddy fields, banana gardens. So villagers should understand this, if they start a lemon garden, which is not liked by elephants and then elephants will leave the place permanently.”
“On the other hand, if villagers come to know that the herd of elephants will enter the village, they should make a paste of chili powder and then burn it. By doing this elephants ignore the place after getting a smell”, Baishya Added.
DFO Dimpy Bora requested all the village headmen to look over the matter of encroachment in reserve forest areas, after that people had started making banana, pineapple, battle nut garden and making paddy fields.
“By doing all these things, people damage the elephants natural paths and their foods. So we should understand that like we get angered and engaged with wild elephants if they enter our villages, they too angered if their path or foods are damaged.” added DFO Bora.
“To control the man and elephant conflicts, the forest department has already made 17 anti-depredation squads and one central squad in our West Kamrup Divisional jurisdiction.” added DFO Dimpy Bora.
Reacting to the recent incident, where a 25 years man survived from an elephant attack in Mousuwa village under Singra reserve forest, DFO Bora requested the villagers not to unnecessarily follow the elephants.”
During the awareness meet, DFO Dimpy Bora along with MLA Nandita Das distributed high capacity torch lights and firecrackers to the 31 village headmen under the Singra and Bondapara Range office.
The MLA requested the villagers that not to disturb the elephants unnecessarily, they will leave the place by doing less damage, instead of disturbing the elephants resulting in man’s life lost or elephant lost their life.
“We all know that elephants are peaceful and intelligent animals like us, they understand where to go and from where they came. But when people obstacle the elephants, there is no choice and they attack people. These kinds of incidents happen in these areas many times, so people should stay calm and give them a path to go, so that elephants will less attack on villages”, added MLA Nandita Das.
WWF official David Smith said in his speech that nowadays villagers are using electric fencing to save their garden or cultivation from elephants, as a result, sometimes elephants lose their lives or sometimes people die due to electrocution.
“People should use solar powered fencing by taking permission from the forest department, so that both animal and peoples life can be saved from electrocution”, added David Smith.
The appreciation speech was delivered by Alok Deb Nath, ACF, in-charge of Singra forest range. By sharing his speech, Alok Deb Nath shared his experience and said, “Elephants are very intelligent and they can understand emotions and feelings. I have experienced many times after giving them to pray, elephants were leaving the place, by doing any unnecessary disturbances. So villagers should try this and I hope it will work.”
