Chhattisgarh: Katghora Forest Officials Start Campaign To Avert Man-Elephant Conflicts After Jumbo Tragedy

Raipur: In order to reduce human-elephant conflict in the Katghora Forest Division of Korba district, forest officials launched an extensive awareness campaign in the elephant affected villages of Katghora forest division of Chhattisgarh.

The campaign was intensified after three women were trampled to death by wild jumbos in an accident in the Katghora forest division forest range.

Herd of 40 wild elephants roam inside Katghora forest

2016 batch Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Kumar Nishant, who recently took the charge as a Kathghora Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) informed the Free Press Journal that at present a herd of 40 wild elephants are roaming in the Katghora forest division. Despite the forest department staffs are making sincere efforts to save the lives in the man-elephant conflict affected villages, three casualties occurred.

Two villagers who mistakenly overlooked the repeated flagged warnings of the forest department and were attacked by the wild elephants, while they were collecting bamboo produced in the forest of Chotia area, the DFO said.

Humans thread on danger zone despite warning

One of them died on the spot while another person succumbed to its injuries while having medication in the hospital, the officer said.

Second case was related to old age women who failed to flee when the elephant attacked her house.

In the case, the forest department has already released the immediate compensatory funds to the family of the victims. However, I and my team are continuously camping in the affected area to save lives by creating awareness and providing help, the DFO said.

The forest department has distributed torches, and other materials to the affected villagers, and carried out regular meetings with the villagers, and provided them requisite information about the presence and movement of wild elephants in the area.

2 apps to monitor movements of wild elephants

In order to keep a close eye on the activities of the elephants, their movement presence, the department is monitoring their activities through two apps - namely ‘Sajag’ app and ‘elephant tracking’ app. The villagers in elephant affected areas have been encouraged to download both the mobile apps to track the latest movements of wild elephants in Katghora forest division, DFO Nishant said.

Automatic alerts were sent to the villagers once the presence of the wild elephants got detected. Meanwhile, it was found that the wild elephants usually damage crops and kachcha houses storing food grain in the forest areas.

The department is identifying such lone houses which were situated in the highly sensitive forest areas and soon a report will be tabled to district administration so that effective decisions can be taken to avert such encounters in future.

The department has also planned to install solar fencing around such vulnerable houses in sensitive areas in a bid to prevent human elephant conflicts, said Kumar Nishant. Villagers were also advised to vacate such houses falling in highly sensitive areas, he added.

Sajag alarms installed in 31 villages

It has been informed, Sajag alarms have been installed in 31 villages.

Moreover, after such a tragic incident occurred, it has been reported, along with the DFO, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) Bilaspur Circle Rajesh Chandel also visited elephant affected villages under Katghora forest division. Chandel also interacted with the villagers of the elephant affected areas and assured them to resolve their problems at the earliest.

Published on: Wednesday, September 13, 2023, 10:07 PM IST