The inter-State meeting between the forest departments of Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh held recently in Jamshedpur evolved a joint strategy for controlling man-elephant conflicts and destruction of crops and properties to increasing inter-State migration of elephants.
The joint efforts come in the wake of at least eight human deaths in the Baripada forest division of Odisha by migrating elephant herds from Dalma Reserve in Jharkhand recently.The officials have also decided to seek permission from the Environment Ministry for their respective wildlife wings to maintain joint surveillance on elephant poachers and their networks to control incidents of poaching.
large-scale cross-border migration of the jumbos has emerged as a serious issue in these States. There are about 4,000 elephants in the four States, but of them about 200 are involved in conflict.“While Odisha and West Bengal contended that close to 200 elephants emerge from Jharkhand’s Dalma Sanctuary and cross the borders, the park management of the latter said their number could not exceed 120-140. This indicates there are separate herds which also migrate during the onset of winter,” sources said.
The Chief Wildlife Wardens of the four States are likely to ask the Project Elephant to conduct a study to find out the composition of the herds, the reasons for migration and mitigating measures.The States also arrived at a consensus that migration paths of the jumbos should not be blocked since such activities have led to elephants deviating from their routes, causing more conflict situations because the long-ranging find new migratory tracks through areas inhabited by people.The officers of the respective states called for regular exchange of information amongst each other. There should be joint monitoring of movement of elephants/ animals and restoration of habitats.
In terms of creating water holes, availability of food, erection of solar fences such that its migration can be checked.The issue of sharing modern technologies to keep track of the elephants, exchange of skilled personnel and joint efforts for habitat improvement were also discussed in the meeting,The States also expressed concern on cross border poaching, whereby smugglers take advantage of contiguous forest stretches joining the states.
Although the States claimed to have received intelligence inputs by the interrogation of the poachers about the smugglers, they cannot be been apprehended as the Wildlife Wings are not authorised to order phone surveillance, location tracking and data monitoring. “We have to depend on the State Police for surveillance”, said the sources.
Hence, the four States have joined hands for taking necessary permission from Environment Ministry in this regard, they said. The next meeting of the officials is scheduled for December in West Bengal.