Wildlife habitat restoration key to mitigate human-elephant conflict in Assam: Minister

Guwahati, Jul 13 (PTI) Assam Forest Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah on Monday stressed on wildlife habitat restoration for mitigating human-elephant conflict in the state. He said the state government was adopting short-term as well as long-term measures for restoring the natural habitat of the pachyderms, and urged the support of all stakeholders. Replying to a ‘Calling Attention’ motion by BJP legislator Padma Hazarika in the assembly, Baruah said it has been observed that wherever encroached forest area has been cleared, instances of elephants entering human habitation have come down. “Wherever we have been able to clear forest land of encroachment… we have found that human-elephant conflict has decreased there. It has happened in three to four places,” he said. The minister said that while the increase in population of elephants has been at a normal rate, the dwindling forest cover has led the pachyderms to venture into human habitation. Development activities along traditional elephant corridors and alleged torture of these animals in some bordering states have led to more elephants entering human habitations in Assam, even in areas where they were not spotted earlier, Baruah said. While forest restoration will be a priority long-term measure to mitigate the conflict, short-terms steps such as solar fencing, creation of waterholes inside forests, promotion of Assam lemon plantations as natural barriers, scientific evaluation of beekeeping as an elephant deterrent and better equipped Rapid Response Teams, among others, are also being pursued by the department, he said. “To address the issues of human-elephant conflict and monkey menace, we will be holding a meeting with the MLAs on July 15,” Baruah said. Earlier, raising the issue, Hazarika sought a scientific approach in tackling human-elephant conflict. PTI SSG RBT