India is home to approximately 27,000 Asian Elephants which is the world’s largest population of this rare species.
However, as human populations have grown and elephant habitats have been altered by development, human-elephant conflict has resulted in unfortunate and tragic outcomes for both people and elephants.
To help solve the problem, a guidebook for the forest staff dealing with human-elephant conflict has been launched by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) along with the Wildlife Institute of India (WWI) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF India).
“WWF India, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Project Elephant have compiled the ‘Field manual for Managing Human-Elephant Conflict’ with details of best practices of minimising human-elephant conflict. This document is drafted with the aim of providing forest officials/ departments and other stakeholders with guidance towards interventions to help mitigate Human Elephant Conflict, both in emergencies and when conflict poses a recurring challenge, shared by Ravi Singh, Secretary-General and CEO, WWF India.
"The field manual specifies the conditions under which forest officials and their teams should consider various interventions and is a living document that will incorporate on-field experiences from time to time. This manual is a result of years of field experience and efforts that our teams have gained to help both affected communities and elephants, " he added.
Addressing HEC comprehensively will require the sustained attention and investment of all those who love elephants, including local communities, NGOs, and state and federal governments.
The manual takes an important step in this direction and is intended to be a ready resource for those working to foster human-elephant harmony across the country.
WWF India intends to work towards its widespread implementation through translations and training of Forest Department staff. The manual is intended to be a living document, revised and redeployed every 2-3 years based on the latest insights in conflict management. Working together, WWF India and their partners hope to bolster India’s reputation as a global leader in wildlife conservation.
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