A rapid shrinking of habitat and elephant corridors in Lower Assam’s Goalpara district has led to an alarming rise in the man-elephant conflict in the district leaving casualties on both sides.
According to the official sources, so far, twelve persons have lost their lives in elephant attacks in Goalpara district only this year.
Latest on the card, one Pradip Das was trampled to death by a wild jumbo at Matia area on Saturday.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Meenakshi Das Nath, Deputy Commissioner of Goalpara district on Monday urgently called a meeting at the DC’s conference hall to chalk out a plan to mitigate the conflict, lost of lives and properties.
Besides Manas Das, ADC on Forest charge, and Jitendra Kumar, DFO (Territorial), all the circle officers and other stakeholders participated in the meeting and discussed in detail how to overcome the challenges in this regard.
The Deputy Commissioner directed the circle officers to identify all the elephant corridors and prime conflict zones and share the information with the Forest department.
She also requested the stakeholders to coordinate with each other to find out an effective solution so that the lives of both men and elephants can be saved.
Resolutions were also taken to ensure the free movement of the elephants through their natural corridors and to form task forces at the circle levels to create awareness and other needful actions.
Meanwhile, DFO Jitendra Kumar said that ex-gratia is being paid to the eligible relatives of the elephant death victims.