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Bengaluru Charter to mitigate human-wildlife conflict adopted
It calls for formulating an SOP regarding what must not to be done by humans to minimise conflict
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Minister of Forest Eshwar Khandre at the inaugural ceremony of the International Conference on Human Elephant Conflict in Bengaluru on Monday, August 12.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
A Bengaluru Charter to mitigate human-wildlife conflict and formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to minimise the conflict was adopted on Monday, August 12, at the International Conference on Human-Elephant Conflict Management-2024 (ICHECM- 2024).
At a Minister Engagement Programme which was held on the sidelines of the ICHECM- 2024 and attended by the Environment Ministers of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, and Jharkhand, the 13-point Bengaluru Charter was adopted.
Can co-exist
The charter said that humans and elephants can co-exist and that conflict happens only when they suddenly come very close to each other.
It also called for formulating an SOP regarding what must not to be done by humans to minimise conflict.
“There should be an SOP regarding what are the do’s and don’t’s when an elephant has ventured outside the forest and a conflict-like situation is forthcoming. This should involve the affected population and all the departments of the State administration who are likely to be of assistance in the situation,“ states one of the points of the charter.
Besides, it also called for the need for an SOP for elephant capture so that there are no accidents involving humans and elephants.
Radio-collaring
It stressed the need for all big elephant herds to be tracked by radio-collaring the matriarch and said that information and location must be shared with neighbouring States as well as the villages that are near the location of the herd.
The charter also said that to ensure that compensation at par with Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana is available for crop losses caused by elephants and other wild animals, the government of India may be requested to contribute the central share in premium of the portion of crop insurance covering damage by wild animals.
The charter said that the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 needs to be revisited to focus on Project Elephant areas.
Common boundary
To ensure better coordination between the States, it called for all the elephant-bearing States sharing a common boundary should meet at least once in three months at the district level and once in six months at the State level to disseminate all information, intelligence, good practices, research, etc., and join hands in combinedly dealing with the conflict.
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