Maharashtra: Vigil stepped up as state’s jumbo guests go after paddy
Maharashtra: Vigil stepped up as state’s jumbo guests go after paddy
Ranjeet Jadhav, Mid Day
November 30, 2022
See link
https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/maharashtra-vigil-stepped-up-as-states-jumbo-guests-go-after-paddy-23258213
for photos.
This is a new phenomenon for local communities and the forest department,
given that Gondia’s forests have no record of an elephant presence for
centuries
With the paddy crop harvested, forest department officials in Gadchiroli,
Gondia, and Navegaon have intensified the patrolling and monitoring of the
herd of 23 elephants, which has come to Maharashtra from Chhattisgarh, as
they might enter villages in search of grains.
Sagnik Sengupta, an elephant expert and co-founder of NGO Stripes and Green
Earth Foundation (SAGE), said his team and forest staff are present on the
ground to restrict the movement of the herd towards villages.
Sengupta said, “Over the past few days, the herd is doing movement by only
late afternoon and by evening heading towards villages. In some places,
paddy is still there in the field which they have eaten, but mostly paddy
has been harvested so movement will now be towards villages. It is
important to patrol and block these movements.”
On the night of November 15, he said, the elephants entered the Jambhali
village in Gondia. Moving swiftly, the volunteers from the NGO and forest
officials pushed back the jumbos towards the forest. The SAGE team has
started a fundraiser to acquire 600 flashlights that will come in handy in
reducing man-animal conflicts.
In October 2021, a herd of elephants entered the state’s Gadchiroli
district from Chhattisgarh. While the elephants went back to Chhattisgarh
in March 2022, they returned to Gadchiroli in August 2022 before moving
towards Gondia in September.
This is a new phenomenon for local communities and the forest department,
given that Gondia’s forests have no record of an elephant presence for
centuries. Officials said elephants are leaving Chhattisgarh possibly due
to mining and the destruction of their habitats. But this has also raised
concerns over human-animal conflicts in Maharashtra.
Amid signs of the elephants warming up to Gondia, experts said, steps must
be taken to ensure the safety of the animals as well as local people. SAGE
Foundation is also holding workshops and conducting awareness programmes to
help the forest staff prepare better to face the jumbo job. India has
nearly 27,000 elephants. “That is a 98 per cent drop from a million that
lived in India just a decade ago,” said the expert. Experts said
elephants venture into human settlements in search of food, resulting in
conflicts.
“We intend to equip the villagers with flashlights and train them on how to
use flashlights to push back the elephants. Already in this migration of
the elephants, there have been two death incidents, one each in Gondia and
Gadchiroli districts. To avoid further conflicts, the villagers need to be
equipped and trained. The money raised through the fundraiser will be used
to provide flash torches to the villagers and teams who are responsible for
safely guiding elephants back into the forests when they stray into human
habitation areas. We will provide regular updates on the distribution and
usage of the flashlights with geo locations,” added Sengupta.