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Tripura Forest Department plans to start elephant reserves
TIWN
Tripura Forest Department plans to start elephant reserves
PHOTO : TIWN

AGARTALA, June 9 (TIWN): The state Forest Department has chalked out a plan to start two elephant conservation reserves in an attempt to evade further man-animal conflict in the rural hamlets.Speaking about the issue, Chief Wildlife Warden of Tripura Dr. AK Gupta recently said that instructions were passed to Forest Department officials for conducting meetings with local public representatives and other local bodies by July to finalize the issue.

One of the two proposed elephant reserves is expected to come up at Gandhari area near Udaipur city in Gomati district, Gupta said. The other would be started in the Atharomura ranges between Ambassa and Teliamura sub-divisions, he added. The official further stated that the Forest Department is taking special interest in studying the generic behavorial patterns of the animals. “We would be fitting electronic transmitters to the elephants which would be operated via the Global Positioning System (GPS)”, Gupta said.

 He added that the state government is now able to take advantage of amendments in the Wildlife Protection Act, 1986 which allows state governments to initiate wildlife conservation procedures aimed at wildlife community conservation and reduction of man-animal conflicts. Tripura was once ill famed for frequent man-monkey conflicts, especially in Khowai and Teliamura sub-divisions. Figures of such attacks have substantially gone down in the past few years.

 The arrangement of creating elephant reserves is expected to be helpful in getting advance information regarding any sudden attack of elephants on human habitations or crop fields. “We are hoping to tackle man-elephant conflicts more efficiently with this extra resource of advance information”, the official said. He hoped that the elephant reserves would add to the tourism basket of Tripura as well. Elephant corridors were started in the Atharomura foothills in 2012.


The Ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) later gave a ‘go’ for community conservation of elephants in the Atharomura and Gandhari following rising incidents of man-elephant conflicts. An attack of wild elephants killed a man and destroyed huge tracts of crop fields in Khowai district earlier in May this year. The attack was reported from Kalyanpur area under Khowai district, some 70 Km away from Agartala. Forest Department officials were deployed to take control of the situation.

The 2008 wildlife census of Tripura said that the state housed 58 elephants. The figures were only 40 in 2002. Citing more informal figures, the Chief Wildlife Warden said that elephant population in the state is believed to have substantially increased over the years.

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