Maharashtra approves action plan to prevent human wildlife conflict

Nagpur: Forest minister Ganesh Naik on Tuesday approved a Rs260 crore action plan to prevent human-wildlife conflict in Maharashtra, including AI-based alert systems in 1,000 villages near forest areas and 10 control rooms across the state to track wildlife movement and coordinate emergency response.The decisions were taken at a meeting of the standing committee of the State Wildlife Board, chaired by Naik at Mantralaya. It was decided that the measures would be implemented immediately to prevent attacks on humans and damage to crops.Under the plan, 10 control rooms modelled on police control rooms will be set up across the state, equipped with advanced digital systems to track forest department vehicles, resources and patrol teams. In the event of a human-wildlife conflict, the control rooms will alert officials and initiate immediate action, Naik said.AI-based alert systems, already piloted in select villages on a trial basis, will now be scaled up to 1,000 villages adjoining forest areas. These systems will provide real-time information on wildlife movement to residents, enabling them to stay alert.Two rescue centres will be set up for animals that are captured, along with 10 transit treatment centres at different locations for injured wildlife. Rapid rescue teams will be formed at 20 locations for animal rescue operations. In addition, 2,000 primary response teams comprising villagers will be established in forest-fringe villages to assist the forest department.Two mobile squads equipped with advanced equipment will be deployed to catch crop-damaging animals such as deer, monkeys and wild boar and release them back into forest areas. Two sterilisation centres are also proposed to control the population of monkeys and wild boars.The meeting was attended by principal chief conservator of forests (head of forest force) Srinivas Rao, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) M Srinivas Reddy, deputy secretary Nikita Pandey and special duty officer Uday Dhage.