On 28th of June we had a meeting about Human Elephant Conflict at the RDO (Revenue Divisional Officer) office with the help of Rotary Club (Dr. Venkatesh). We had called all the nine panchayat presidents, and the RDO, senior police officers (DySP), and Forest Department Range Officers, various NGOs etc.
Ramesh explaining about the wider geography of the region
The main reason of the meeting was to ask all the panchayats about their experience of problems with elephants and what they thought were the solutions. First Dr. Venkatesh welcomed all the people on behalf of Rotary club, and we gave an introduction about the issue and about elephants.
Then RDO spoke about how everyone should work together to solve the problem and not all fight with forest department. DySP spoke about the problems for police and how too many people gather and make it a law and order problem whenever elephants come. Mr. Sivasubramaniam from WWF also spoke about the elephant problems in other areas, and what methods are working in other areas.
Tarsh and Arun talking about an Early Warning System
Then each panchayat president spoke about the problems. Though we told them to also speak about solutions they mostly only complained about problems. Most of them are politicians from DMK or AIDMK, and some are not interested in solving the problem, only to keep fighting.
This is a summary of what the panchayat people had to say:
Panchayat Member talking animatedly to the forest and revenue officials
At the same time, some opposite views were also given:
Forest department Range officers also spoke positively. They said their aim is to work more closely with local people, and together find solutions. People should think forest department can solve all the problems, and they also should cooperate, not only fight all the time. They said they will cooperate with local people as much as possible to form more Eco Development Committees (EDCs) so they can all work together to solve the issue. They will try their best to give compensation on time.
So all together people themselves know most of the issues. But they do not agree among themselves, and most are still angry with the forest department.
Next we are going to have meetings in all the panchayats and in villages, and we will make more detailed plans about what can be done. People from Srimadurai, Cherambady and O’Valley Panchayats were very interested in having a meeting there.
We are thankful to the Elephant Family and many other individual donors for supporting our work.
Notes by Ramesh M, The Shola Trust. 30th June, 2013.