An elephant at the (below) Chandaka Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, July 31: For the first time in the state, authorities of Chandaka Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary have tied up with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to have a caller tune on wildlife conservation. The song calls for proper conservation of its flagship species — elephant — which has been declared a heritage animal.

The Oriya caller tune tells listeners the importance of elephant in an ecosystem and why it should be conserved for maintaining a proper ecological balance. “We are hopeful that the callers trying to contact any employee of the sanctuary will be happy to listen to the song. The BSNL authorities have helped us in this regard to spread the message of wildlife conservation through mobile technology. As mobile penetration in our society has reached every nook and corner, we hope that the strategy would be helpful in managing the man-animal conflict,” said divisional forest officer of the sanctuary Akshay Kumar Patnaik.

The song, also describing the sanctuary’s animal and plant resources, is of 1.5-minute long. However, the BSNL has included 45 seconds of the song as its caller tune.

Of late, the elephants are coming out of the sanctuary in search of food such as paddy, as the wildlife experts feel that at times, food materials such as fodder grass and foliage are depleting in the forest due to climate change. As the elephants damage paddy crops, people residing in the fringe areas of the sanctuary are not happy. However, more plantation of fodder species such as banyan and peepal and creation of a belt of bamboo forest in the Bharatpur Reserve Forest area have controlled the movement of the pachyderms to some extent. “The new caller tune will help us spread a friendly environment for the elephants,” Patnaik said.

A minute’s of drive from the Temple City, the sanctuary boasts of everything — ancient monuments, waterbodies, small damsand bamboo huts, log houses and watch towers to see animals from close quarters. “Though there are 23 elephants according to the 2010 census, during out field visits, we notice around 40 elephants inside the sanctuary. As elephants are long-ranging animals (migrate to greater distances while walking in a day), there might be a change of numbers due to their movement through elephant corridors,” said the sanctuary officials.

“The protected area boasts of 38 species of mammals, 16 species of lizards, flap shell turtles, mugger (marsh crocodiles), 39 species of snakes and 174 species of birds,” sources said.

In another development, the sanctuary authorities are planning to release a complete documentary on the habitat, which will be on display at a proposed tourist interpretation-cum-information centre at Godibari. “There will be two touch-screen monitors at the entrance where the visitors can get the complete details on the park and also see the documentary,” said Patnaik.

The Godibari interpretation centre will also have state-of-the-art display rooms on herbal and fodder plant species, bamboos and berries of the sanctuary. There will be complete information on two nature trails — sal and macharanka (kingfisher), an eco-theatre, lily and lotus ponds, play corner and information centre on adventure sports like trekking.