COIMBATORE: Six wild elephants that are frequently raiding crops and entering human habitations have been deemed problematic by the forest department. These elephants are found in seven forest ranges in the Coimbatore forest division.
The six elephants are male and aged between 20 and 35. They raid crops such as banana, arecanut, maize and coconut trees. The male elephants arrive on a daily basis in the Mettupalayam Periyanaickenpalayam and Madukkarai forest ranges, said forest department sources.
To limit negative human-elephant interactions, the personnel of the Coimbatore forest division have started round-the-clock patrols instead of patrol only at nights.
Usually, the personnel hold night patrol to chase away wild elephants, wild boars, etc. that enter farm lands and human habitations. However, based on the direction of the District Forest Officer (DFO), the staff now drive away animals during the daytime well before dusk to ensure that the animals remain inside the forest itself.
Often elephants come out of the forest at night. "Close to 150 staff will be on duty during daytime and a similar force will be on night duty. To ensure the staff are working, one forest range officer on night duty would be checking their work every day," said DFO N Venkatesh Prabhu, who implemented round-the-clock patrols soon after he took charge in Coimbatore.
"We have shifted from reactive responses to proactive actions in the last one-and-a-half months to keep the animals inside the forest. We plan to purchase walkie-talkies along with drones for effective wildlife management. A proposal in this regard is being readied," he added.
With walkie-talkies the staff can be reached at any time from the command centre where the public complains on the toll-free number. Thus staff can be made available for chasing away elephants, he added.
"The field-level staff are patrolling with the help of the M-stripes app, which records the distance and location they covered during day time. After 14 days, their activities will be checked. We will strengthen patrolling wherever they have not been carried out to ensure the forest is free from poachers:," the DFO stated. He had implemented the M-stripes method successfully in Erode and Gudalur forest division when he served there.