This development is inspired by similar AIR services in Chhattisgarh about the movement of elephants.
This development is inspired by similar AIR services in Chhattisgarh about the movement of elephants.File Photo | PTI

AIR to help mitigate man-animal conflicts in MP

Such alerts and audio clips developed with the state forest department’s help are being interspersed with popular programs, particularly music and farmers-oriented programs.
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BHOPAL: Country’s public radio broadcaster, the All India Radio (AIR-Akashvani) has a new role to play in Madhya Pradesh – alerting people about movement of wild animals, including elephants, tigers and leopards to prevent human-animal conflicts and related casualties.

The AIR-Shahdol has started alerting and educating the villagers in Shahdol, Umaria and Anuppur districts, not just about movement of elephants, tigers and leopards, but also on the do’s and don’ts on encountering them.

Such alerts and audio clips developed with the state forest department’s help are being interspersed with popular programs, particularly music and farmers-oriented programs.

This development is inspired by similar AIR services in adjoining Chhattisgarh about the movement of elephants. The Chhattisgarh initiative that has drastically reduced human-elephant conflicts had been applauded by the PM Narendra Modi also.

According to forest department sources, the alerts through the AIR is just one component of a detailed wild elephants and their habitat management plan, which is being formulated for monitoring the elephant movements and measures to mitigate human-elephant conflicts.

The AIR alerts started following a workshop on human-animal conflicts at the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) in December 2024. Efforts are now on to make it a regular feature of Akashvani programs in other districts as well, such as Sidhi, Singrauli, Satna and Maihar, whose forest areas and villages located close to these areas fall on the route through which the elephants have been travelling in MP, after entering from the neighbouring Chhattisgarh.

The AIR-Ambikapur, along with the radio service in Raipur, Raigarh and Bilaspur, have been successfully broadcasting the special bulletins about jumbo herd movements in Chhattisgarh since past many years, programming head of AIR-Shahdol centre Avinash Diwakar told this newspaper on Sunday.

According to chief conservator of forests (CCF) of Shahdol Circle Ajay Kumar Pandey, “Though the initiative is new, it would start delivering results on the ground, once it becomes a formal daily feature in the near future. We already have WhatsApp groups at Range and village levels, where all stakeholders of various departments and villages, including the Hathi Mitras are already being alerted about elephant and other wild animal movements.”

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The New Indian Express
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