In order to take preventive measures to control wild elephant deaths due to electrocution, an inter-departmental meeting between the Tamil Nadu Forest Department (TNFD) and Tangedco was held on Friday evening in the city.
The meeting was headed by I Anwardeen, chief conservator of forests (CCF), Coimbatore circle. The district forest officer S Ramasubramanian, forest veterinary officer NS Manoharan, senior engineers and assistant engineers from Tangedco, members from Osai, an NGO and WWF, India participated in the meeting.
Anwardeen said that an advisory note on daily elephant movement and presence will be shared to the Tangedco by the forest department for proper wildlife management activities.
A hotspot mapping of vulnerable areas will be generated and cropping pattern map will also be generated with the help of NGOs. It will be shared with Tangedco to increase crop monitoring when the harvesting season nears.
The meeting also suggested that joint surprise patrolling by both the departments during the night time to scrutinize the illegal tapping will be initiated at the earliest.
Creation of awareness among local people in fringe villages of human-elephant conflict (HEC) areas in Coimbatore circle will be done jointly. Ex-servicemen squad of TNEB will be undertaking special joint patrolling with TNFD in sensitive areas. Also one-day sensitizing programme for TNEB’s frontline staffs and all other stakeholders in all ranges of Coimbatore circle will be conducted. Both department officials also suggested that a special discussion should be conducted with the district administration and superintendent of police on the issue.
The CCF said in the meeting that the TNFD, Tangedco, police and revenue department will jointly collect intelligence report on illegal tapping of electricity in the farming lands and will fight to take concrete legal actions against the offenders. These offenders will be prosecuted under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The district forest officer Ramasubramanian said that over 10 elephants were electrocuted in Coimbatore forest division in the last six years.
He also advised the forest range officers to monitor the elephant movements and farmers activities often to prevent elephant deaths due to electrocution.