Assam forest department might soon launch a mobile app which will alert them on movement of elephants and is expected to reduce the human-elephant conflict in different parts of the State that claims lives of large numbers of human as well as elephants every year.
The app developed jointly by the Nagaon forest Division and Dhemaji forest division of Assam is undergoing trial in some areas of Nagaon and Dhemaji district to ascertain its efficacy and likely to be launched across the State soon if found effective.
Named as ‘Airawat’, the mobile app can be installed in any smart phones having the basic features and it is designed such a way that it will work as an interface between the forest officials and the users till the conflict is resolved.
“One just need to install the app in his phone and put in the basic information about the spotting of elephant herd. The app will immediately send alert to the nearest forest officials so that timely action could be taken to ensure that there is no conflict between humans and elephants. The alert will also give us the exact location and other details,” said Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Nagaon division, Suvashish Das while talking to The Pioneer on Wednesday.
Das and his colleague, DFO of Dhemaji forest division, Prashant Dhanda has led the project in developing the app.
“The app is being tried in some areas under Dhemaji and Nagaon forest divisions of the State. So far the results are good and it can be used by users across the State,” said Das adding that the users would also be able to track the follow up action taken by the forest department through the app until the conflict is resolved.
“Many a times during the human-elephant conflict, there is a communication gap. While the people claim to have informed the department about presence of herds of elephants, the information does not reach desired end leading to delay in action and the conflict happens. Now through this app, we are going to get the exact location which will help resolve the conflict immediately,” said Dhanda.
It may be mentioned here that human-elephant conflict has emerged as a serious problem in different districts of Assam including Nagaon, Karbi Anglong, Golaghat, Goalpara, Dhemaji, lakhimpur etc where large numbers of humans as well as animals were killed every year.
According to Assam Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma a total of 303 people died in man-animal conflict and 137 were injured in the State since 2011. The Minister further told the Assam legislative Assembly in September this year that 8,305 houses and 18,797 bigha of crops were damaged during that period.