The environment and forest department on Tuesday decided to set up a rescue centre and five quick response teams at different places to control human-elephant conflict.
The decision has come a fortnight after a herd of 15 elephants entered the forests of Gaya and Aurangabad from Chhattisgarh, creating menace, killing three persons and destroying crops.
Bihar has no elephant in its forests. With jumbos entering the state from jungles of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bengal and Jharkhand, the meeting decided on better coordination among these states to track their movements.
Environment and forests department principal secretary Vivek Kumar Singh, principal chief conservator of forests D.K. Shukla and representatives from Chhattisgarh, Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha along with Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, a Hyderabad-based animal shooter, attended the meeting of trans-boundary movement of wild elephants.
The members said the elephants from other states enter Bihar in search of food and water. Shukla said: "As Bihar's villages have sugarcane, gram and wheat fields, the elephants from neighbouring states enter Bihar. However, the problem arises when the elephants turn violent because of interference of villagers."
The rescue centre in Bettiah and five quick response teams in Bettiah, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Gaya and Patna will be equipped with manpower and necessary tools and medicines to tackle the elephant menace. Principal secretary Vivek Kumar Singh said: "The rescue team and quick response teams will act like disaster management team to control the elephants."
The main task of the teams will be to drive away the herd of elephants to forests without any loss of damage to life and property after the entry of elephants. Till now, Bihar has no such rescue or quick response team and the Bihar forest department had to hire teams from other states to drive away the elephants entering Bihar. Recently, a team from Bankura (Bengal) had been called to drive away the herd that entered Rajwalia village in Dumaria block of Gaya district last month.
The herd, which entered the Gaya forest, was largely peaceful but claimed a life and destroyed standing rabi crop in the fields. An elephant had trampled Bishu Paswan (50) of Rajwalia village when he went to touch its feet in reverence for its association with Lord Ganesh. As per the forest department, the jumbo entered the Gaya forest on January 26 and was in the area till February 7.
Vinod Ranjan, additional director-general (wildlife), said: "It is not the first time that elephants have entered Bihar from neighbouring forests but this time they did not return to their original habitat as the herd lost their way because of human interference."
