Centre, State govt concerned with human-elephant conflict in Nagaland

Wokha, March 1 (MExN): A human-elephant (wild animal) conflict mitigation awareness campaign programme was organised by the Forest Department, Nagaland at Hammock Resort, Wokha on February 27. Noyal Thomas, IFS, Inspector General of Forest and Director, Project Elephant, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India, New Delhi was the special invitee.


District Administration, police, forest department, agriculture, chairman and members of villages affected with human-elephant conflict from Wokha district attended the programme which was sponsored by MoEF & CC, GoI, New Delhi.


Tokaho Kinimi, IFS, Wildlife Warden, Dimapur chairing the programme gave a brief background of the existing problem in the State, stated a press release issued by Chief Wildlife Warden, Nagaland.


The special invitee in his address stated that both the Government of India and the Government of Nagaland is concerned with the protracted problem of human-elephant conflict prevalent in the region and the Ministry will extend all possible assistance for mitigation of the conflict.


He appealed to the villagers not to harm elephants, follow adoptive cropping pattern and stated that the State Government should timely release the funds given for this purpose. He assured that the Ministry will take up the matter of timely release of funds with the State Government so that human-elephant conflict prevalent in the district can be addressed on time. He informed that the Ministry will try to allocate more funds for Nagaland and particularly for addressing in Wokha district.


Satya Prakash Tripathi, IFS, Chief Wildlife Warden, Nagaland in his keynote address, talked about the genesis of the human-animal conflict prevalent in the state in general and elephant problem in Wokha district in particular. He highlighted the policies of the State Government and the MoEF & CC, GoI, New Delhi for addressing the problem.


Chonpenthung Ezung, SDO(C) Wokha shared that farmers of Wokha are dependent on subsistence agriculture and not commercial farming and hence, when the wild elephants raid their fields and destroys crop and property, their entire livelihood gets affected. District Administration, through DDMA Wokha, also give timely help to the villagers but the amount given is meagre and therefore, he requested the Central Government to look into the matter. He also suggested to prepare concrete guidelines for co-existence of men and elephants as well as to create a method of tracking elephant movements so as to avoid human death incidents.


Santsu Yanthan, DAO Wokha stated that due to presence of wild elephants, the agriculture department is not in a position to implement the centrally sponsored schemes in totality and appealed to the department for its solution.


Zuthunglo Patton, IFS, DFO Wokha gave a powerpoint presentation on the status of Human-Elephant Conflict in Wokha and also suggested some short term and long term strategies with interventions from Central and State Governments. An annual plan of operation for 2019-20 was also submitted. She requested the IGF and Director, Project Elephant, to give special consideration to Wokha under Project Elephant since it holds more than 2/3rd of the population of elephants in Nagaland and the locals were suffering, on a daily basis.

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