Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Success in jumbo tracking

The state forest department's decision to introduce global positioning systems (GPS) to track elephants and curb the jumbo menace near human habitations in the forest division has started to yield dividends.

"The GPS trackers introduced in the division's seven elephant-interference-prone forest ranges have achieved a certain degree of success in tackling man-elephant conflict," said Keonjhar's divisional forest officer Santosh Joshi.

"Villages under the forested areas of Keonjhar, Bhuyan-Juanga-Pidha, Telkio, Ghatgaon, Patna, Champua and Barbil have borne the brunt of elephant depredation over the past few months. Locating the animals was important to drive then away from the forest-side villages. After deliberations with elephant experts, we resorted to the GPS tracking, and it is paying dividends," he said.

Nearly 230 contractual employees, with the assistance of forest officials, are keeping 24x7 watch in batches on the movement of the elephants armed with GPS. Once the elephants are tracked, their location is transmitted to the district control room, which then alerts the patrolling team nearby to drive them away from human habitations, Joshi said.

Technology has made tracking movements of wild elephants and their corridors easier, he said.

Five people have died, while 30 others suffered injuries in elephant attacks since January. Over 100 houses have been damaged by herds, while the extent of damage caused to farmland is yet be assessed, said a forest official.

The GPS-tracking teams spotted 85 elephants on Thursday night. The Champua forest range, which is the worst-hit, recorded 28 jumbos.

Of the 85 elephants tracked, around 20 came from forested areas in Jharkhand and Bengal. Patrolling squads have stepped up watch in those areas to curb possible outbreaks of man-elephant conflict. An official said there have been no reports of elephants causing damage to life and property in the past week.

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