Coimbatore: With the technical and scientific aspect of securing elephants corridors being taken care of by experts and scientists, a network of NGOs has been created by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in every elephant corridor district in order to monitor the corridors and create awareness.
Coimbatore: With the technical and scientific aspect of securing elephants corridors being taken care of by experts and scientists, a network of NGOs has been created by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in every elephant corridor district in order to monitor the corridors and create awareness.
The NGOs will be traveling to all the 101 elephant corridors spread across the 12 States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and meet the people with the message of ensuring the Right of passage for elephants.
“The corridors are being manipulated in many ways and the land use pattern in the corridor keeps changing. Since the corridors are largely located outside protected areas, it is important to bring people who use these landscapes on board. It is here we bring in our ‘Green Corridor Champions’, the local NGOs who work close with these people,” said K. Ramkumar, Manager and Project Head of Elephant Corridor Securement Projects, South India.
He further added that the NGOs will be entrusted with the job not only creating awareness among the local community but also study the changes that occur in the landscape. “They will keep a check on major development projects in the landscape and also help in curbing such changes,” he informed.
Opining that Green Corridor Champions could also be like-minded individuals who wish to secure elephant corridors, Ramkumar said that proper training would be given to the people involved to effectively carry out the task.
Explaining about the difficulties involved in securing a corridor, Ramkumar said that liaisoning with the local communities would be one of the toughest tasks where the help of NGOs would be of greater help.
Large scale liaisoning is also to be done along with forest department officials and lawmakers when a new corridor is identified.
WTI has also launched a project called ‘Gaj Yatra’, in which fabricated elephants will be sent to all the elephant corridors for awareness creation at a larger level.
Rallies are also to be held in these places involving education institutions and the general public.
Of the 101 elephant corridors, WTI has been able to successfully secure five corridors in the States of Meghalaya, Karnataka and Kerala. The securing of the sixth corridor is near completion and six more corridors have been taken up by the organisation in the States of Assam and Karnataka.
The NGOs will be traveling to all the 101 elephant corridors spread across the 12 States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and meet the people with the message of ensuring the Right of passage for elephants.
“The corridors are being manipulated in many ways and the land use pattern in the corridor keeps changing. Since the corridors are largely located outside protected areas, it is important to bring people who use these landscapes on board. It is here we bring in our ‘Green Corridor Champions’, the local NGOs who work close with these people,” said K. Ramkumar, Manager and Project Head of Elephant Corridor Securement Projects, South India.
He further added that the NGOs will be entrusted with the job not only creating awareness among the local community but also study the changes that occur in the landscape. “They will keep a check on major development projects in the landscape and also help in curbing such changes,” he informed.
Opining that Green Corridor Champions could also be like-minded individuals who wish to secure elephant corridors, Ramkumar said that proper training would be given to the people involved to effectively carry out the task.
Explaining about the difficulties involved in securing a corridor, Ramkumar said that liaisoning with the local communities would be one of the toughest tasks where the help of NGOs would be of greater help.
Large scale liaisoning is also to be done along with forest department officials and lawmakers when a new corridor is identified.
WTI has also launched a project called ‘Gaj Yatra’, in which fabricated elephants will be sent to all the elephant corridors for awareness creation at a larger level.
Rallies are also to be held in these places involving education institutions and the general public.
Of the 101 elephant corridors, WTI has been able to successfully secure five corridors in the States of Meghalaya, Karnataka and Kerala. The securing of the sixth corridor is near completion and six more corridors have been taken up by the organisation in the States of Assam and Karnataka.