Chhattisgarh Minister of Forest, Housing and Environment Mohammed Akbar on Wednesday released a booklet, ‘Guidelines for Safety from Wild Elephants’, in a bid to educate the people on how to avoid human-animal conflict.
The booklet in Hindi has been published jointly by the Forest Department and Vasundhara Prakriti Sanrakshan Samiti. The event took place at the Minister's official residence here.
Addressing the event, the Minister said the booklet, with pictures, will be effective in minimizing the human-elephant conflict -- and also protect the animals, humans, property and crops.
According to an official statement, the guidelines emphasize that elephants are a peaceful, social and intelligent animal. By understanding their behavior and habits, the human-elephant conflict can be brought down.
The booklet says that information about elephants’ presence in an area should be provided to the Forest Departmental. In case of broken power cables or swinging low lying wires, the Forest and Electricity departments should be immediately intimated.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Rakesh Chaturvedi and other officials were present.
The booklet comes just when Chhattisgarh has witnessed a string of deaths of elephants due to various reasons. The elephants have also killed unsuspecting villagers.