Forest dept to set up committees to resolve man-elephant conflict

Coimbatore: The forest department is planning to form human-elephant conflict resolution committees with villagers as members, additional principal chief conservator of forests Debasis Jana said here on Friday.

“We believe that the committee will help to resolve the conflict,” he said while speaking at an interactive session with NGOs, forest department officials and media held here.

As many as 12 people were killed by wild elephants in the Coimbatore forest division since April 2019, Jana said. “Thirty-two people had lost their lives in wild elephant attacks between 2017 and 2019.”

Two people were killed by elephants in the Nilgrirs forest division since April 2019. “Five were killed in the Gudalur forest division during 2017-18 and 10 during 2018 -19. But only three deaths were reported since April 2019,” the official said.

The department is taking steps to ensure availability of fodder and water inside the reserve forest for wild animals, Jana said. “Such efforts will check entry of wild elephant into human habitations,” he said. “The department has only 65% of the sanctioned field staff. They are working round-the-clock to prevent man-animal conflict.”

The department is also creating awareness on man-animal conflict, the official said. “We have advised people staying in forest fringes not to venture out at night to attend nature’s call. We are working to reduce the response time to reach human-elephant conflict areas.”

District forest officers D Venkatesh, D Guruswamy (Nilgiris) and Sumesh Soman (Gudalur forest division), and range officers participated in the interaction.