NILGIRIS: Nilgiris MP A Raja on Wednesday said that steps will be taken to set up a Command Control Centre (CCC) at a cost of Rs 6 crore to monitor wild animal movements and mitigate human-animal conflict.
The proposed command control centre would be helpful to monitor the movement of wild animals even if they are inside the forests, said Raja while interacting with reporters at Gudalur.
Monitoring will be done through the CCC around the clock and this aims to curb human fatalities in leopard and wild elephant attacks. Earlier, he attended a meeting with district collector M Aruna and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Project Tiger) Rakesh Kumar Dogra which discussed ways to reduce human-animal conflict in the district.
“Last week a girl was killed in a leopard attack in an estate in the Nilgiris. ` Ten lakh compensation was given to the kin of the three-year-old who was killed by a leopard. After the death of two people, the forest department captured the leopard and it was sent to Vandalur Zoo in Chennai.
As of now Rapid Response Team is functioning with 90 members who belong to the local areas and steps have been taken to include 60 persons additionally to strengthen the monitoring activities. Moreover, two Rapid Vehicles will also be procured soon,” said the MP. Raja also assured that the Divisional Forest Officer, Gudalur, will convene a monthly grievance meeting to consider complaints and requests related to the forest department.