Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has asked the Forest Department to take initiatives to prevent elephant-human conflicts in the region. He said that arrangements for adequate food and water etc. should be made in elephant habitat areas of the state, so as to control the elephant-human conflict. Baghel was speaking at the first meeting of CAMPA governing body held under his chairmanship.
Chief Minister especially emphasized the Forest Department to make better action plans for creating public awareness regarding elephant-human conflict control. “According to an estimate, there are about 6000 elephants in Kerala, and despite that elephant-human conflict is a rarely occurence. Necessary initiative should be taken towards making elephants friend of humans,” he said. Elephant is a very calm, intelligent and social animal, by understanding its nature and by creating public awareness, elephant-human conflict can be resolved, he further added.
In addition, he also emphasized on the development of pastureland, plantation of fruit trees and development of water structures in forest regions for conservation of wildlife. Conservation of state animal wild buffalo, state bird Bastar Myna, Reindeer, hyena, sonkutta, vulture etc. was also discussed. Discussion on detailed action plan to increase the number of lions and to improve the habitat for birds was also held in the meeting.
At the first meeting of CAMPA governing body which was held at CMs residence office, Baghel reviewed the works sanctioned under CAMPA fund. It was informed that in 2020-21 during corona crisis, employment of 42.44 lakh human days has been created at the cost of Rs 219 crore 63 lakh, from April 1 till present. Chief Minister gave instructions to sanction as many MNREGA works as possible, under Avarti Charai Yojana and Forestland Rights Act, to provide maximum employment opportunities for people in forest regions. In the meeting, he also reviewed the groundwater conservation and augmentation related works under Narva Yojana. A presentation on the Arpa River Revival Plan was given at the meeting.
(Featured Photo: Representational Image/ (c) Narender Yadav)