BHUBANESWAR: Chief secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena on Thursday emphasised installation of early-warning systems to alert villagers in conflict-prone areas to reduce man-animal conflict and prevent casualties arising out of such situation. A day after assuming charge, Jena chaired a high-level meeting with senior officers of Forest and Environment, Energy and other departments at Lok Seva Bhawan. He advised that a mechanism be devised through which SMS alerts could be sent to people living in conflictprone zones in the event of straying of wild animals. He suggested that stakeholders be consulted to ensure proper assessment of crop loss due wildlife depredation and review whether there is a need of enhancing the compassionate grant.
On the occasion, Sneha, a non-government organisation, roped in by Energy department to submit report on measures to reduce man-animal conflict, delivered a presentation on human-elephant conflict. Addditional chief secretaries Mona Sharma and Nikunja Bihari Dhal were present at the meeting. Meanwhile, forest, environment and climate change department sources said around 172 anti-depredation squads have been pressed into job to deal with conflict effectively. The squads have been deployed to prevent loss of life and property and their major role is to drive out elephants and other wild animals from human-inhabited zones into forest areas. The move assumes significance in view of the growing cases of man-animal conflict. The department is also planning construction of 150 water bodies for wild animals and prevent them from moving towards human habitats.