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The District Forest Officer in Jashpur, Jitendra Upadhyay, praised the tracker teams for mitigating human-animal conflict in the region as data showed no loss of animal or human life in the last two years in the district.
Speaking to ANI on Saturday, DFO Jitendra Upadhyay said, "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 has been created continuously for the last 10 months." Trackers were formed on the instruction of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, and are proving to be a milestone in preventing conflict, he said. The DFO said that a rapid response team working in the region helped with any incidents that might occur and reduced the death of animals and humans alike. "Due to the hard work of all the forest staff, trackers, rapid responding team and Mitra Dal, the loss of elephants in the elephant-human conflict has stopped and the loss of life has also greatly reduced. Elephants have also been secured. There has been no loss of elephants in this district for the last 2 years," he added. Further praising the efforts taken, and the results it has shown, he said that the district is "moving towards symbiosis" by understanding the elephants and collaborating with various villagers, forest staff and representatives. He added, "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." Large elephant herds are seen 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. The elephant trackers chase elephants into the forests and keep elephants away from the village. 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. Tikeshwar Chauhan, a 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 alerted us through messages. If elephants cause damage, the government also gives compensation." 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," Yadav said. "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," he added. (ANI)
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