Angul: The Angul forest division will launch a new scheme named ‘Gajabandhu Yojana’ involving villagers to check the increasing incidents of man-animal conflicts and the destruction of crops by elephants, a report said Tuesday.
The scheme will be implemented from July. Forest officials will select four to five people from each village and train them in tackling elephants. The scheme will be initially launched in 20 villages, and will be implemented in all the 60 villages in Angul forest division eventually.
The scheme will help save the lives of villagers and their properties from elephants, said divisional forest officer (DFO) V. Kartik.
He said the scheme will try to make people elephant friendly. Forest officials will go from village to village and conduct awareness programmes.
Four to five people will be selected from each village and imparted training on checking the elephant menace. The selected villagers will be known as ‘Gajabandhus’ and will be paid a small remuneration.
This will help them earn a living and also help in reducing the hefty compensations given by the forest department every year for deaths and property loss due to elephant menace. The list of villages to be included is being discussed, and will be finalised before launch in July, he added.
The Gajabandhus will serve as a link between villagers and the forest department and will work in coordination with its officials.
The Gajabandhus will monitor the movement of elephant herds and drive them away if they try to enter human settlements. This will greatly help in saving human lives and properties, the DFO said.
The situation can be brought under control even if the jumbo herd enters villages and starts destroying crops and properties.
Gajabandhus will immediately inform forest officials about the arrival of elephant herds, and the latter will rush to the spot and drive away the pachyderms.
The Gajabandhus will help meet the demand of people for deployment of forest squads in villages facing elephant menace.
Sources said elephant menace is common in villages coming under six ranges of the forest division. The pachyderms destroyed 33 houses completely and 51 houses partially in villages coming under Chhendipada, Bantala, Kaniha, Talcher, Durgapur and Purunagad forest ranges in 2018-19.
Around 7,325 farmers lost crops raised on 1,576.69 acres and four persons were killed by the jumbos during the period.