COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu Forest Department is taking efforts to minimise leopard attacks in the Valparai region. Two children have been killed here in the last one-and-a-half years, the latest victim being a four-year-old girl in an estate at Pachamalai last month.
Officials of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) are working out a plan to overcome the current difficulties in identifying the big cat. Currently, the people are well aware of the elephant movement through early warning systems like SMS as well as Whatsapp messages and the use of high-mast lights.
As per the plan, Artificial Intelligence (AI) cameras will be set up at vulnerable places on a trial basis. After the camera detects the movement of a big cat, an alert message will be sent to the range officer and the forest beat officer concerned. Subsequently, the team will be deployed in the area to trace the animal using a thermal drone.
Human deaths due to wild elephant attacks have ben curbed over the last decade in the Valparai region by adopting these measures.
"The plan is in the proposal stage, and it will be implemented after consultation with all the stakeholders and getting a nod from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) since the incidents of wild elephants getting killed by trains are averted with the help of AI cameras at the Madukkarai forest range in the Coimbatore forest division," said a senior official of the ATR.
"We are planning to enumerate both tiger and leopard populations in estate areas in both the Valparai and Manombolly areas by fixing camera traps. The work on fixing between 400 and 450 camera traps will commence at the end of this month. Within a month, we will get a result on the leopard population, and we will track which animals are problematic and are frequently arriving near the human habitations. Already, we have fixed camera traps inside the forest in Valparai and Manombolly. For the first time we will be fixing these cameras in 47 tea, coffee, and cardamom estates. We will also assess the prey base of the big cats," said the official.
The district collector will also be convening a meeting with all the stakeholders, such as TANGEDCO, Valparai Municipality, police, the departments of revenue and highways, and representatives of NGOs, along with labour contractors.
"It is not only the duty of the forest department to take steps to prevent the human-leopard conflict. Everyone is responsible for the rise in negative human-animal interactions. The municipality should educate the people to avoid dumping domestic waste and chicken waste in the open. Often, wild animals enter human habitations attracted by the smell of waste. Likewise, we will also educate estate authorities to give accommodation to migrant workers on the safer side of the labour residential quarters where animal movement is unlikely," the official pointed out.
A committee consisting of the nominees of the NTCA, chief wildlife warden and an NGO along with public representatives will meet once a month to discuss the progress of these initiatives.
While a compound wall is in place for 30.6 km in the Jhalana Leopard Reserve in Rajasthan to prevent leopard intrusion into the human habitation, a similar option is not viable in the Valparai region owing to the challenges posed by the terrain.