Chhattisgarh: Trackers proving to be milestone in preventing elephant-human conflict in Jashpur

Most of the elephant herds are found in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Jharkhand. Elephants are considered to be very intelligent but they also become aggressive to protect their herd. Often herds of elephants travel on the same route for decades for foraging.

Due to human settlements on those routes, conflicts between elephants and humans are also on the rise.

In this conflict, often elephants or humans lose their lives. The Chhattisgarh government is making an effort to stop the conflict between elephants and humans and in this sequence appointed elephant trackers. The villagers living around the forests have been made elephant trackers. They have lived around the forests for years, and they know the forests well and are aware of the habits of elephants. Whenever elephants pass through the forests, these trackers follow them and ensure the conflict between human and elephants are reduced.

The elephant trackers chase elephants into the forests and keep elephants away from the village.

At the Lavakera Chhattisgarh-Orissa border of the Tapkara range, through which elephants come from Odisha to Chhattisgarh. A signboard indicating a warning of elephants has also been installed near the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border to warn people. Elephants cross the river passing through the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border and come to Chhattisgarh.

Tikeshwar Chauhan, a local resident of Lavakera, said, "The Odisha border is next to us. Elephants spend more than half of the 365 days of the year here. The forest department team comes to alert us. The forest department of Chhattisgarh and the Odisha forest department also come, they inform us by phone and also alert us through messages. If elephants cause damage, the government also gives compensation."

At the Hathibed forest, the elephant trackers said that a herd of elephants is in the forest. As soon as the elephant trackers entered the forest, all of them formed groups and started searching for the elephants' footprints.

As soon as the elephant trackers heard the sound of the herd of elephants, they alerted everyone, and the team slowly started moving forward.

Lambodar Yadav, a villager of Hathibed, said that elephants used to come occasionally earlier but now elephants keep coming and going.

"They come from Orissa and go to Raigarh via Hathibed. When elephants come, elephant trackers also come with them, we also remain there along with the forest department employees. With the help of a mike and torch, trackers do not let the elephants come near the village. Earlier there were no elephants here, so there was no situation of human-elephant conflict, now elephants pass through here more often, and a situation of human-elephant conflict arises, but due to the presence of trackers, elephants are kept away from the village," he said.

Elephant tracker Rajesh Ram Yadav said that it is their job to advise the people of the area where the elephant group lives not to go to the forest.

"Especially the rural areas which are situated on the edge of the forest, we advise them to keep a distance from the elephants, do not go out of the house at night, keep a distance from the forest. Many elephants mostly go towards the houses, we trackers and the team of forest department together drive the elephants towards the forest. We try to ensure that the elephants and the villagers do not get harmed, we alert the villagers through mike and siren. Right now a group of 29 elephants are roaming in this area, sometimes they come to Raigarh district, sometimes to Jashpur district," he said.

He said that as Tapkara is surrounded by Odisha-Jharkhand and Raigarh district, so many elephants keep coming and going here from time to time.

He further said, "What we are seeing here is that a group of elephants is passing through here, so we are looking for elephant tracks, looking for elephant footprints and looking for a group of elephants."

Elephant tracker Devvrat Ram said that they currently have 6 trackers here. "28 to 30 trackers have been prepared in Jashpur district. We track elephants in the forests and alert people. If elephants are in the forest, we work to keep people away from them. We try to ensure that no incident occurs," he said.

Elephant tracker Devvrat Ram said, "When we go to track an elephant, we keep a bag with us which contains tiffin, medicine, torch and a stick. When we go inside the forest, we move forward cautiously. When we see an elephant, we stop and go back and alert the villagers that the elephant is roaming in this area and they should not go inside the forest. As long as the elephant is in our area, we track it and when the elephant moves ahead, we inform the tracker of another area about it."

Jashpur DFO Jitendra Upadhyay said that Jashpur district is adjacent to the border of Jharkhand and Odisha, and elephants continuously move here.

"It is called the gateway of Chhattisgarh and it is the most sensitive district regarding elephant-human conflict. As per the initiative and instructions of the Chief Minister, public awareness is being created continuously for the last 10 months. On the initiative of Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, a special tracker team has also been deployed, a rapid response team has also been formed. Due to the hard work of all the forest staff, trackers, rapid responding team and Mitra Dal, the loss of elephants in elephant-human conflict has stopped and the loss of life has also reduced a lot," Jitendra Upadhyay said.

He further said that elephant trackers are being trained further and he felt that after being trained, loss of life will be a part of history in one and a half years.

"Elephants have also been secured. There has been no loss of elephants in this district for the last 2 years. The graph of loss of life is also continuously going down. The district is moving towards symbiosis by understanding the behaviour of elephants along with local public representatives, villagers and forest staff," he further said.

Upadhyay said that they have deployed trackers and rapid response teams in every range.

"They keep GPS with them and have a diary in their hands. The daily movement of the elephant is entered into it. This work has been going on for the last 6-7 months and has gained momentum in the last 3 months," he added. (ANI)