KRISHNAGIRI: In a bid to prevent human-wildlife conflict, the Hosur forest division has started sending SMS alerts to farmers about elephant movement in their area.
Speaking to TNIE, Hosur forest division wildlife warden K Karthikeyani said, “This is an initiative by Conservator of Forests, Dharmapuri circle, VC Rahul. Usually, around October, about 120- 150 elephants from Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and Bannerghatta National Park in Karnataka will enter the Hosur forest division in Jawlagiri forest range and they will reach Andhra Pradesh via Denkanikottai forest, Noganur and Maharajakadai. And those elephants will return in the same way around the months of April and May.”
“The contact numbers of around 2,700 farmers and villagers from 150 villages are available with the forest department, which were collected during field visits. Forest rangers of seven forest ranges in the district, have created a group and are sending SMS about elephant movement to the farmers from Monday.
Currently, we are sending messages in Tamil, and will soon expand it to Telugu and Kannada. We are also planning to send a voice message to the farmers about the same,” she added. Farmers who wish to get SMS about the jumbo movement can approach the concerned forest rangers.
Apart from this, the department will also spread awareness about jumbo movements to people.