‘CCTV surveillance to locate jumbos started as pilot proj’
Siliguri: World Elephant Day was celebrated in Siliguri on Tuesday with a special programme organised jointly by the Forest department and Solitary Nature and Animal Protection (SNAP) foundation at Ramkinkar Hall in Siliguri. The event saw the participation of senior forest officials, including Bhaskar JV, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) North (Wildlife), Devesh Pandey, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Kurseong,
Kumar Bimal, Forest Development Corporation Director, and forest workers from various ranges under North Bengal. As part of the celebrations, a poster competition was held to raise awareness about elephant conservation and over 100 forest workers from different ranges were felicitated for their service. Speaking at the event, Bhaskar JV, CCF highlighted several new initiatives taken to protect elephants and reduce human-elephant conflict. “Surveillance in the Bagdogra Range through CCTV cameras with an advanced technology to locate elephants has been started as a pilot project. We plan to extend the same system to Buxa and Jaldapara in the future,” he said. Explaining the challenges of elephant management in North Bengal, he noted that the region’s forests are fragmented and interspersed with tea gardens, leading to frequent elephant movement into human settlements.
“Due to modern development in villages and year-round cultivation, elephants often leave their corridors in search of crops, resulting in increased conflict. Villagers have also started going out of their houses at night, which was not common earlier. As a result, they often come face-to-face with elephants. To address this, additional squads have been deployed and surveillance has been stepped up,” he added.
Bhaskar JV also shared that the last elephant census, conducted in 2017 through direct sightings, had recorded lower numbers than the present population.
“Now, the number of elephants in North Bengal has risen to around 600-650. Many also migrate to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and to
Assam,” he said.
