ROOPAK GOSWAMI Guwahati, April 22 : Top officials of Project Elephant are coming to Assam on a two-day visit on Friday to hear from the forest authorities in the Northeast for more effective conservation and management of wild as well as captive elephants.
The team is coming under the aegis of the recently constituted task force on Project Elephant “It is an important meeting for the region as all the stakeholders of elephant conservation will be present to speak on the problems,” a senior forest department official told this correspondent.
The Northeast has one of the highest elephant population in the country.
According to 2007-08 elephant census, the number of elephants in the Northeast is estimated between 9,305 and 9,355.
Of this, Assam has 5,281 elephants followed by Arunachal Pradesh with 1,690. The present population of elephant in Assam is 58 per cent of total elephant population in the Northeast.
Of the 5,281 elephants in Assam, 3,051 are found in the protected area, 2,086 in the managed forests and 144 in the revenue areas.
The elephant population in the region in 1993 was 11,027, 9,482 in 1997, and 9,243 in 2002.
The elephant population in Assam has been stable from 1993 till date but there has been loss of prime elephant habitat, corridor loss and land use changes.
The official said besides elephant conservation organisations and forest officials of the region, elephant owners are also being invited for the meet.
The man-elephant conflict in the region has assumed serious proportions leaving the authorities helpless and gasping for a permanent solutions. The committee shall examine issues relating to human-elephant conflict and recommend appropriate short-term and long-term solutions.
The problem is acute in Sonitpur and Dhemaji districts where more than 50 per cent of notified reserve forests are under encroachment and evictions are carried out occasionally.
Bibhab Talukdar, a member of the task force on Project Elephant, said district and autonomous councils should be called as they hold sizeable area of forests with high biodiversity.
Keeping in view the socio-cultural and religious sentiments attached to the elephants, the committee shall recommend future strategies/guidelines for suitable use of elephants.
The 2008 elephant census of Assam had revealed that elephants had killed 239 people in the state in the past five years. Wanton destruction of forests in Assam has resulted in disruption of elephant corridors leading to human-elephant conflict.
There are five elephant reserves in Assam covering an area of 10,967 square km.
The issue of funds for elephant conservation can also come up as the utilisation pattern is also not good.
“Elephants in Assam are not being poached for largescale trade, but retaliatory killings is a big problem,” the official said.
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