AGARTALA: The forest department has come up with an innovative idea to keep the wild elephants away from areas in Atharamura foothills in Teliamura of Khowai district in West Tripura and set up an elephant camp at the entry point at Mungiyakami.
Principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) DK Sharma on Wednesday formally opened the camp followed by a public meeting to sensitise the communities about the initiatives. The department has brought four trained elephants — Madhu, Motilal, Kishore and Gita — from Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary to the camp, which would be deployed as sentinels against the herd of wild elephants.
“The wild elephants are the pride of the forest in any state but due to shortage of food inside their habitat, they are forced to come to the human habitation in search of food and destroy the agricultural produce and even sometimes attack the houses. In the villages of Krishnapur and Kalyanpur areas of Teliamura, elephant herds have been disturbing villagers since the last few years due to shortage of food inside the forest,” Sharma said.
He said the forest department in consultation with the wildlife officials have undertaken steps for massive plantation of forest food in the Atharamura hill range and its surroundings to confine the elephants within their natural corridor but somehow it has not been enough.
The trained elephants with the help of wildlife experts, would work as a barrier for the wild herds to prevent their entry into the human habitations. Wildlife officials said human activity and encroachment in the forest habitat have disturbed the elephant life that resulted in the conflict with the villagers.
Earlier, the state government had a plan to set up an elephant reserve at Gandhari in Gomati district spread over 123.8 sq km, but it did not materialise. With the loss of their habitat, the elephants started migrating to Bangladesh where forests were abundant and now wire fencing along Indo-Bangladesh border on the eastern side has put paid to that.
