Coimbatore: Police should help to curb man-animal conflict, says top cop

Coimbatore: Coimbatore Police Commissioner A.K.Viswanathan called upon the police force to join hands with forest department to curb man-animal conflict.

The city police chief was addressing an awareness seminar for police on ‘Man-Animal conflict’ organised by Nature Conservation Society along with forest Department on Tuesday at Tamil Nadu Forest Academy Campus. Around 100 police officials including Sub-Inspectors, Inspectors, Assistant Commissioners, DSPs from Coimbatore, Nilgiris districts took part in it.

The Commissioner asked the police to reach the spot immediately when they receive information on entry of wild animals into human habitations. The cops should prevent the curious public from getting too close to the wild animals, especially the elephants.

Referring to a recent incident in which a forest staff was trampled by a wild elephant, he said the forest staff did not notice the elephant nearing him as he was busy regulating the crowd. In such cases, police should reach the spot without waiting for call from the forest department.

Additional PCCF and Director of Tamil Nadu Forest Academy (Coimbatore) Rajeev K.Srivatsava, Additional PCCF of working Plan P.Durai Rasu, DFO M.Senthil Kumar and the Nature Conservation Society President N.I. Jalaludeen gave a power point presentation on man-animal conflict.

The West Zone IG K. Shankar, DC (crime) Coimbatore Ramya Bharathi, Tamil Nadu -Project Tiger PCCF RaghuRam Singh, Coimbatore Conservator of forest I.Anwardeen took part in the seminar.