India and Bangladesh are chalking out plans to ensure continued migration of elephants from the North-East through the Indo-Bangla border that will be sealed by June next year.
According to sources in the Environment Ministry, as part of the plan, Forest Department teams from Assam, Meghalaya and Bangladesh will jointly identify places along the International Border which are used by the jumbos to cross over to the other side.
Mammoth-sized gates will then be constructed along such routes which have been part of elephant corridors for hundreds of years but have now become fragmented due to increasing human settlements leading to man-elephant conflicts.
The gates will be manned by security forces guarding the border. The task of the Forest Department personnel will be to keep track of the movement of elephants and inform the guards to open the gates for herds to cross the border safely.
The efforts come in the wake of recent directives by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to seal the 284-km-long border between Assam and Bangladesh by June 2017, due to infiltration of migrants from the neighbouring country.
However, an exception would be made for elephants to pass through the border. It is estimated that Assam is home to about 5,000 elephants while Meghalaya has another 1,800 jumbos. There are a total of six elephant corridors along the Indo-Bangladesh border in these two North-Eastern States.
The elephants need a large area for migration and thus often pass into the neighbouring forests of Bangladesh from Assam and Meghalaya.
Any obstruction on their seasonal migration routes often leads to conflicts, including loss of lives and damages to crop and property in villages.
Talks are in the advanced stages with Bangladesh and the approval in this regard is awaited, following which work will begin, said Ministry sources.
Sources further said a surveillance mechanism would also be put in place to keep tabs on suspicious movements through the corridors meant for the pachyderms.