Coimbatore: Despite being a hotspot for negative interactions between humans and elephants, a statistics provided by the Coimbatore Forest Circle states that human casualties have declined here over the years.
Coimbatore: Despite being a hotspot for negative interactions between humans and elephants, a statistics provided by the Coimbatore Forest Circle states that human casualties have declined here over the years.
The data that was shown in an interactive meeting between foresters, NGOs and experts, claims that 17 people have been killed by wild elephants in 2019-20, whereas the numbers stood at 26 in the previous year.
Of the three forest divisions -- Coimbatore, Nilgiris and Gudalur, Nilgiris is the only division that has seen a rise in human death with two deaths, last year. Notably, there was no deaths in the previous two years.
Talking at the meeting, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Debasis Jana, who is serving as the Chief Conservator of Forests, Coimbatore Circle, said that the decline in casualties was made possible because of the multi- disciplinary actions taken by the department.
“We have been able to achieve it despite working with only 65 per cent of the sanctioned forest staff,” he said.
Opining that the department was planning to form special committees using local people to improve mitigation measures, Debasis Jana said that the idea was to minimise the response time taken by forest staff to reach elephant emergency zones.
“In the sidelines, we are also working towards improving the natural habitat of elephants by making available fodder and water inside the reserve, so that animals do not venture out,” he said.
He further added that they have also planned for a real time elephant monitoring system using thermal cameras to track animal movement.
“A proposal has been sent to the state in this regard to set up the system at a cost of Rs. 7.2 crore. Once the funds arrive and the systems starts functioning, we can detect elephant movement upto three kms away,” informed Debasis Jana.
District Forest Officers D. Venkatesh (Coimbatore), Sumesh Soman (Gudalur) and D. Guruswamy (Nilgiris), other senior officials and members from NGOs participated in the meeting.
The data that was shown in an interactive meeting between foresters, NGOs and experts, claims that 17 people have been killed by wild elephants in 2019-20, whereas the numbers stood at 26 in the previous year.
Of the three forest divisions -- Coimbatore, Nilgiris and Gudalur, Nilgiris is the only division that has seen a rise in human death with two deaths, last year. Notably, there was no deaths in the previous two years.
Talking at the meeting, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Debasis Jana, who is serving as the Chief Conservator of Forests, Coimbatore Circle, said that the decline in casualties was made possible because of the multi- disciplinary actions taken by the department.
| District | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 |
| Coimbatore | 9 | 11 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 12 |
| Nilgiris | 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Gudalur | 5 | 12 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 3 |
| Total | 16 | 27 | 28 | 21 | 26 | 17 |
“We have been able to achieve it despite working with only 65 per cent of the sanctioned forest staff,” he said.
Opining that the department was planning to form special committees using local people to improve mitigation measures, Debasis Jana said that the idea was to minimise the response time taken by forest staff to reach elephant emergency zones.
“In the sidelines, we are also working towards improving the natural habitat of elephants by making available fodder and water inside the reserve, so that animals do not venture out,” he said.
He further added that they have also planned for a real time elephant monitoring system using thermal cameras to track animal movement.
“A proposal has been sent to the state in this regard to set up the system at a cost of Rs. 7.2 crore. Once the funds arrive and the systems starts functioning, we can detect elephant movement upto three kms away,” informed Debasis Jana.
District Forest Officers D. Venkatesh (Coimbatore), Sumesh Soman (Gudalur) and D. Guruswamy (Nilgiris), other senior officials and members from NGOs participated in the meeting.