The priority of the committee would be to reach out to local stakeholders and take measures to reduce the chances of negative interactions
The priority of the committee would be to reach out to local stakeholders and take measures to reduce the chances of negative interactions
The state government has constituted an expert committee to study the negative human-elephant interactions in the Gudalur forest division and come up with a “holistic, long-term solution”.
The formation of the committee comes after a Recent increase in human deaths Responsible for elephant attacks in O-Valley in Gudalur. The committee comprises senior officials from the forest department, including the Conservator of Forests and Field Director of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, D Venkatesh, who is the chairman of the committee, and Kommu Onkaram, District Forest Officer (Gudalur Division), another member. Coordinator.
Its members are researchers and wildlife biologists. B. Ramakrishnan, Assistant Professor in Wildlife Biology at Government Arts College in Udhagamandalam, D. Boominathan, Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF-India) Landscape Coordinator for the Nilgiris, Tarsh Thekekara, Managing Trustee of Shola Trust and Dr. K Ramesh, Scientists from Wildlife Institute of India.
Mr. Venkatesh told Hindu The committee is talking to local residents, politicians and tea garden owners to understand the key drivers human-elephant negative interaction in division. “The first priority will be to reach out to local stakeholders and understand what measures can be taken to reduce the possibility of negative interactions,” he said. There were demands by local communities to put up physical barriers to prevent elephants from wandering into human settlements.
“We will study the feasibility of such barriers, keeping the welfare of the elephants first, and ensure that the barriers are not restricted. elephant movement between different residences,” said Mr. Venkatesh.
According to Mr Onkaram, addressing this issue will require various strategies, including but not limited to physical barriers between humans and elephants. The first step would be the committee to study the scenario, understand the problems and then come up with solutions that can be implemented to reduce interactions between humans and elephants.