Anti-depredation squads launched to tackle men-animal conflict

Assam Geography and Environment

With the conflict between humans and wild animals taking a serious turn, the Assam government launched anti-depredation squads across 15 major human-wildlife conflict affected districts to mitigate the menace.
The state forest department has engaged specially trained 50 frontline staff to handle conflict situations. 100 more staff will be trained in the coming days.
The anti-depredation squads will be equipped with all logistics required for mitigating the conflict. The squads will be currently equipped with 150 numbers of 12 Bore pump action guns, 15,000 rounds of rubber bullet ammunition and other essential items. The forest department has also provided two vehicles to each squad.
Theere is a need to bring the casualties to zero by completely reducing man animal conflict situations and urged the people of the state to cooperate with squads in spreading awareness about animal behaviour.
63 people have been died in human-elephant conflict in the state in this year so far and 62 wild elephants also lost their lives.
The state forest department will involve the local villagers, NGOs with this mission.
According to official figure, a total of 359 people were died in man-elephant conflicts in the state in past four years. Apart from it, 1169 man-elephant conflict incidents were reported in the state during the period.