Adilabad: The forest department in Telangana has prepared an action plan to deal with the menace of wild elephants straying in during the monsoon season for food and water from bordering Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh states.
They enter the state by crossing the River Pranahitha. The forest department and district administrations of Mancherial and Komaram Bheem Asifabad districts aim to deal with any eventuality that arises from elephants from Maharashtra.
The department has drafted an ‘Elephant Management Plan’ that involves purchase of thermal drones, normal drones, watch towers and patrolling vehicles to monitor the elephant movement. The plan also involves a provision for compensation for the human loss and crops damage.
The plan is also to create awareness among the local people about elephant behaviour and introduction of a system to alert the local villagers through messages via Whatsapp groups and setting up of siren systems in the vulnerable villages.
The forest department also plans to send teams of officials to the human-animal conflict areas in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to study and adopt technology and communication systems.
A sub-adult male elephant entered the Kagaznagar forest division by crossing the River Pranahitha from Gadchiroli and trampled two farmers to death in the first week of April. The wild elephant returned to Maharashtra a few days ago.
Jogu Yellam, working as a field biologist for the Kawal Tiger Reserve, who got training in human-elephant conflict and management, said he learned new things about elephant behaviour and habitat management after an elephant strayed into Telangana state.
Elephant experts from other states insisted on Telangana forest officials’ coordination with Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra to tackle the situation since they were exposed to the phenomena for the first time here.
After going through the videos and photos of the elephant that entered Kgaznagar Forest division, elephant experts from Kerala and Karnataka noted that the elephant was readying for mating and searching for a female elephant. During such periods, elephants would behave aggressively.
The same elephant had killed two other persons returning to their original habitat in Chhattisgarh from Telangana, it is learnt.
The existing practices in other states will be replicated and new practices designed based on the local conditions in erstwhile Adilabad district, officials said.
It is feared that a herd of elephants at present seen on the borders of Gadchiroli of Maharashtra may come to Telangana state borders any time. Experts say single elephants will conduct recce of new habitations and later bring their herd to the new forest area.
An elephant has entered the Chinthalamanepalli and Bejjur mandals of Kagaznagar forest division in Komaram Bheem Asifabad district by crossing River Pranahitha from Gadchiroli.
The forest department conducted a training session at Mancherial for the field-level staff of multiple departments including revenue, police, forest, NGO, Panchayat raj and DFOs and collectors on April 23.
