Assam: Steps to tackle jumbo menace

[Guest guest]

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061226/asp/northeast/story_7183140.asp

 

Steps to tackle jumbo menace

- Corporate sector and other agencies to be roped in

A STAFF REPORTER

Guwahati, Dec. 25: The Assam forest department will approach the

corporate sector and other agencies for tackling elephant

depredation.

 

The department is reeling under lack of proper infrastructure and

inadequate resources.

 

A meeting was held with the divisional forest officers at the Assam

state zoo on Saturday to resolve the issue. Chief wildlife warden of

Assam, M.C. Malakar, chaired the meeting.

 

Malakar said the department would soon write to different companies

and other agencies for help.

 

" It must be made clear that the forest department alone cannot do

the job and everybody concerned will have to contribute in their own

ways, " he said.

 

Malakar pointed out that panchayats and zila parishads would have to

work in tandem with the department. He said the department was

suffering from shortage of resources and logistics.

 

The meeting took stock of the requirements of various divisions and

the steps taken to tackle the situation. " We could at least know the

requirements in each division so that we can help them. This would

also enable us to learn from others, " a forest official said.

 

Money from central schemes like Project Elephant takes a long time

in getting sanctioned due to red tapism.

 

Malakar said that almost all the forest divisions were facing the

problem of elephant depredation. With forest areas being cleared,

the man-elephant conflict has emerged as a cause for concern.

 

Encroachers have almost denuded the green cover in the entire North

Bank.

 

According to a handbook brought out by the state forest department,

the total estimated area under encroachment in the state is 3,555

square km till March 31, 2003, and the number of houses built by

encroachers is 70,149.

 

The central empowered committee, which has been constituted by the

Supreme Court, said one of the main reasons identified by the states

for encroachment of forestland and also the extremely slow pace of

their removal is lack of political will.

 

" Influential persons with political affiliations not only promote

encroachments but also abet the entire process. The eviction drive

inevitably results in a backlash, which hampers eviction. This is

coupled with the tendency of most of the officials to follow the

path of least resistance in removal of the encroachments, " it said.

 

The forest department is under fire from various NGOs regarding the

killing of a rogue elephant, Laden.

 

The NGOs have also requested chief minister Tarun Gogoi to direct

the forest department not to proclaim any wild elephant as a " rogue "

and order its killing without clearing the forestland of encroachers.