PILIBHIT: The infiltration of elephants into
Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) from
Nepal is a good sign, say senior forest officials here. It implies that the reserve is a more congenial forest region than their habitat in Nepal, they say. Now, the offiicals have started work on formulating an integrated plan for the formation of a special protection force to save human lives from the fury of elephants and introducing an ATS (Advanced Telemetry System).
Bareilly-based conservator of forest VK
Singh said the elephants of
Shukla Phanta Wildlife Reserve of Nepal seemed to have discovered the old forest corridor linking Nepal and the forest regions of Pilibhit via Lagga Bagga.
The Nepal-Pilibhit corridor was used by the pachyderms before a canal network was developed between the forest belts of Barahi and Mahof ranges. The canal network was developed between 1908 and 1927 by the British. This resulted in the elephants confining themselves in Nepal as by nature they usually avoid man-made structures, forest conservator Singh said.
“Now, elephants from Nepal frequently move into different parts of PTR. This precisely indicates that the elephants find PTR forests and the surrounding agricultural area a better place to stay in as food and water is in plenty,” Singh said. A herd of around 35 to 40 elephants was reported to have moved into Lagga Bagga forest belt of PTR on Friday.
According to him, the elephants are likely to make their new habitats in the area spanning Indo-Nepal border region of PTR with long stretches of grasslands interspersed with water bodies. In such a situation these pachyderms will be deemed as Indian as wild animals have no nationality like humans.
Conservator Singh said if the elephants stay on in PTR, it would be necessary to evolve definite plans to avert man-animal conflicts. He, therefore, asked officials of both forest divisions of Pilibhit — PTR and the social forestry — to constitute two special monitoring teams each comprising a forester, two forest guards and six forest watchers.