Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) is a major concern in India especially in Chhattisgarh and nearby areas. Every now and then, there are stories about life loss, injuries and crop destruction due to this conflict. The reason is simple. Elephant is a long-range animal and because of habitat loss, they enter agricultural lands or villages. This leads to conflict and destruction.
The only way to control these conflicts is to make affected people aware of how to tackle the issue. Indian Forest Services officer Mr. Pankaj Rajput, currently DFO, Mahasamund (Chhattisgarh), has taken up the issue with a unique ‘Gajyatra’ in the whole district. He plans to cover all the HEC-effected village district. During a conversation with Indian Masterminds, he deeply dives into the history of elephants in the district, talks about the conflict and explains his initiative.
NEED TO LEARN TO LIVE WITH THE ELEPHANT
Taking us to the Mughal times, Mr. Rajput says, “Wild Elephant has been living in Mahasamund from hundreds of years. There has been proofs and documents which states that wild animals were tamed and supplied for the Mughal army from here. It remained same till 1920 and then during next 60-70 years almost all the elephants had migrated to nearby states. Again from 1983-84, elephants started to enter the district from Jharkhand side. Now, we have quite a good number of elephants here.”
Now, these wild elephant travel and the ranging area has increased exponentially. According to some data and study while the elephant needed 25 Km of area earlier now, they travel up to around 1500 km in search of food and suitable habitat before coming back. This has increased the conflicts.
“Elephants are part of our ecology. We need to learn to live with them like a good neighbour otherwise it is impossible to control casualties”, he says. If people are aware about Elephants’ behaviour and learn how to react during the confrontation, loss of life could be zero. However, no one can control the crop loss.
USING AN APP TO RAISE ALARM
To mitigate these conflicts Mr. Rajput and his team are working on a two-step plan. First one is to alert the villagers before the elephant enters the village. They are taking help of trackers to trace the elephant and alert the areas before through WhatsApp groups and with help of announcement on loud speakers.
His team has also installed alarm system in 12 villages and connected it through an app. They are using it to play siren and alert people if elephants are nearby or about to enter. He is hopeful that till march 40 more villages will have the same alarm system.
GAJYATRA
On the second part, which is to inform and aware people, Mr. Rajput has launched ‘Gajyatra”. Under this initiative a vehicle has been modified by adding a model of elephant to make it attractive. This yatra moves from village to village and make people aware about the elephant behaviour through videos and songs. “The yatra moves in three steps. In the morning forest guards take the vehicle to schools and show a movie made by forest department on how to behave when elephant is near you. The movie was made in 2006 and we are using it now by adding few changes. In the afternoon the vehicle moves around main points and market areas of the village and make announcement & play songs in local language to create awareness. In the evening, we play the movie and do interactive sessions for the villagers by taking help of local leaders and teachers”, says the officer.
CHALLENGES
The task of tackling HEC is not as simple as it seems. The foresters face various challenges during the interaction. Forest Range Officer Vikas Chandrakar, in-charge of the yatra, says that often the villagers show their anger and ask us why don’t we catch these elephants or kill them? Why villagers should face elephant menace and why they need to learn all these? However, with time they have also realized the importance and co-operating for the initiative.
Till now the yatra has touched more than 54000 people and 70 villages have been covered. The plan is to continue to yatra in 50 more villages. Fortunately, after the yatra have started no cases of HEC has been reported in the district as well. Adjacent districts are also asking Mr. Rajput to send his Gajyatra there. He is hopeful that with this initiative , we might be able to dealt with this age old issue and human & elephants both can live in their respective peace.
