NILGIRIS: A committee of political leaders and local representatives will be formed to mitigate the human-wild elephant conflict at O-Valley near Gudalur. This was announced by Gudalur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) N Venkatesh Prabhu in a reply to an O-Valley-based petitioner.
The DFO has sent a reply to the petitioner, R Ranjit of O-Valley Makkal Iyakkam, who sent a letter to the Chief Minister's Special Cell seeking the forest department to form a committee of public representatives and local people.
The CM's Cell has forwarded the petition to the Gudalur DFO to respond to queries of Ranjit.
"Based on the petition, a committee of political leaders, local representatives, social activists, and representatives from various government departments will be formed. Steps will be taken based on the recommendation from the committee related to the prevailing man-animal conflict situation in the surroundings of O-Valley," said the DFO.
Responding to the creation of food sources for the wild elephants inside the forest, the DFO in a reply said that they are taking steps to plant fodder plants such as bamboo, jamun fruit, and jackfruit inside the forest.
"We are working round the clock to prevent human-elephant conflict even though the elephant movement is increasing due to the rapid increase in population, urbanisation, encroachment, and drastic changes in nature.
Elephant Proof Trenches (EPT) have been set up to prevent the intrusion of wild elephants, and a proposal has been sent to the state government seeking funds as part of extending the EPT for a wider area," said the DFO.
The petitioner, Ranjit, in his plea to the CM's Special Cell, demanded the exclusion of O-Valley from the draft elephant corridor list prepared by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department elephant corridor list.
"Due to the rise in the population of tigers, wild elephant movement has increased in residential areas. The Tamil Nadu Forest Department should stop saying the elephant corridor is a solution and must immediately cancel the announcement in this regard," Ranjit said.
Replying to him, DFO cited the June 26 statement of forest minister, M Mathiventhan, in the state assembly that the Tamil Nadu forest department had not taken any step after releasing the draft elephant corridor list.
"The minister also stated that they will get opinions from people, biologists, technical experts, etc and discuss further steps related to the elephant corridor," said the DFO.