State to hold meet with Odisha & J'Khand to curb man-elephant conflicts in Nov

KOLKATA: Concerned over rising incidents of man-elephant conflict in South Bengal in the recent past, senior officials of the Forest department in Bengal will meet their counterparts from Odisha and Jharkhand in Kolkata on November 4 to chalk out a common action plan for reducing such incidents.

In the last six months, about 30 deaths due to elephant attacks had been reported in the four Jangalmahal districts. Foresters in Bengal have found out that the neighbouring states are often posing barriers to the normal movement of the pachyderms, compelling them to move back towards Bengal. "If the jumbos are allowed to roam around freely in the forest areas covering the three states, the number of victims of human-elephant conflict will be lesser. So, we will urge the neighbouring states not to create artificial entry barriers against the animals in their states," an official of the state Forest department said.

State Forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick said a master plan for elephant corridor is being developed. Two such corridors will be created in Jhargram, two in West Midnapore and one each in Bankura and Purulia, he added.

"There will be facilities of water, suitable plantation of fruit-bearing trees and other infrastructure in these corridors so that elephants can stay there without any difficulty," Mallick said.

It has also been witnessed that the common people have developed a tendency of venturing close to the elephants in an effort to scare them away and have borne the brunt of their unwanted courage.

"A little bit of carefulness and shunning of risk-taking behaviour could have led to avoidance of 70 per cent of the deaths. We will be taking up awareness drives in the risk-prone areas by involving the public representatives," the official added.

Jhargram and West Midnapore have witnessed the maximum incidents of man-elephant conflict.

A workshop-cum-meeting of senior foresters, local MLAs, ministers, civil and police administration of the four Jangalmahal districts was held at the State Forest Training Institute in West Midnapore's Hijli to take stock of the present situation in this regard.