UP to get new elephant reserve soon
UP to get new elephant reserve soon
Daiji World
May 12 2022
Uttar Pradesh will soon get a new elephant called 'Terai Elephant reserve
(TER)', under the Central government's project elephant initiative.
The new reserve will be developed in the joint forest area of Dudhwa and
Pilibhit tiger reserves in Uttar Pradesh and is likely to be notified
within two months.
Sanjay Singh, the chief wildlife warden of Uttar Pradesh, said, "The new
elephant reserve, which has been approved in-principle by the Government of
India, will be known as Terai Elephant Reserve (TER). The project aims to
protect wild elephants, their habitats and corridors. Additionally, the
reserve would also help in mitigating human-elephant conflict in the Terai
region, thereby, protecting farmers and villagers living in the Indo-Nepal
border areas of Pilibhit and Lakhimpur Kheri."
Singh further said, "We will not need to frame any additional rules and
regulations for TER as the norms of an elephant reserve have precise
similarities with those of a tiger reserve in terms of ensuring the safety,
security and the protection of forest and wildlife."
The TER will stretch over 3,000 square kilometres.
"As per a 2020 estimation exercise, the DTR presently has 149 wild
elephants in addition to 25 camp pachyderms including male, female and
calves. Many of the total wild elephants in DTR had migrated from Royal
Shuklaphanta wildlife sanctuary of Nepal to find their new home in DTR due
to conducive conditions of food, water and unhindered shelter," said the
official.
Meanwhile, the divisional forest officer of PTR, Naveen Khandelwal, said
that after the notification of TER is issued, the farmers of many Pilibhit
villages, including Ramnagra, Dhakia Talluke Mahrajpur, Gunhan, Gorakhdibbi
and others, would be brought under the broader aspects of compensation
against the damage to their crops caused by Nepalese elephants every year
in monsoon season.
They will then be eligible to claim the financial assistance extended by
the union government in addition to the one given by the state.