Ministry publishes manual to mitigate attacks by elephants

Pune-based NGO behind guidelines to protect crops

Taking cue from a city-based NGO on their efforts to prevent damage caused to crops by elephants and mitigating man-animal conflict, the central government has published a reference manual. The manual would act as a guideline to all the 17 states in India to mitigate man-animal conflict with respect to elephants. The book, There’s Many a Way to Keep the Elephant Away, focusses on the review of crop protection and elephant management techniques under the community-based conflict management (CBCM) methods.

Rajiv Srivastava, former director of the elephant project and member of central project elephant monitoring committee of the government of India, said the manual would prove useful in mitigating the man-animal conflict. “Among all the conflicts reported with wildlife, issues with the elephant are most worrying. About 500 people die every year in India and at least 100 elephants either die or get severely injured,” Srivastava said. He added that crop raiding is a major issue and guidelines are needed to ensure that conflicts are kept to a minimum.

“Every state that has elephant population is facing the problem for which a participatory approach is required,” he said. “There have been guidelines and documents issued on preventive measures, but this is the first time that a manual has been released on a big scale,” Srivastava said.

Speaking to Mirror, Noyal Thomas, inspector general of forest and director of Project Elephant, run by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change, said, “The manual has been circulated to all the states. The states will ensure that best suitable practices are implemented depending on the region.”

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