An elephant herd in the Garo Hills

Pay the price for herd knowledge

Information on elephants now comes at a price: Rs 150 per month.

Samrakshan Trust, an organisation working on sustainable livelihood for forest- dependent communities in the South Garo Hills of Meghalaya, is paying Rs 150 a month to “informants” who report details pertaining to elephants.

The programme was initiated to overcome the lack of basic information about elephants in South Garo Hills, particularly about herd size and their movements.

Samrakshan focuses on the Balpakram Baghmara Community Conservation Landscape (BBCCL).

The landscape, approximately 300 square km, is situated near the Balpakram National Park.

Apart from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya is the only other state in the region that has a sizeable elephant population, currently estimated to be between 1,800 and 2,000. Garo Hills alone has nearly 1,100 to 1,200 elephants.

“The informants are paid at their village each month when the officials go to collect the information from them,” said a field official of the trust.

AIDS campaign

A policeman and a freedom fighter have joined hands to transform Lahorijan into an AIDS-free zone.

Janardhan Pathak, a freedom fighter and founder of Sewa Kendra, an NGO dealing with AIDS-control measures in the area, and sub-divisional police officer Chitren Gogoi, have launched a campaign to clean up Lahorijan.

This small urban township on the edge of Karbi Anglong district, bordering Nagaland, was a place where prostitution was rampant.

The truckers on National Highway 39 were in for a surprise recently, when a group of women flagged down the vehicles to give them a lecture on AIDS-control measures. Significantly, the group comprised former prostitutes, whom Pathak and Gogoi have enlisted in their campaign.

“We are happy that some of these women have joined our crusade,” said Pathak.

GIS planning

Five towns of Assam will now have GIS-based information system for urban planning and management.

The towns, selected under the National Urban Information System, are Dibrugarh, Nagaon, Silchar, Tezpur and Tinsukia in the first phase.

An official of Assam Science, Technology and Environment Council (Astec) said most of the past concepts about urban development are being questioned.

Traditional approaches and techniques designed for towns and cities may turn out to be inadequate to deal with today’s urban planning.

“New approaches need to be invented, other methods need to be incorporated in the existing work methods.

From the vast experience of the past, a solution for the future planning methods has to be derived,” the official said.