Ninety nine households located in human-elephant conflict prone areas of Wokha district received 4950 kg rice as ‘grain-for-grain’ relief through a Rapid Action Project (RAP) to assist elephant conservation efforts in the state.
RAP by Natural Nagas and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), assisting the Nagaland Forest Department, was supported by CAF – India (Charities Aid Foundation) and philanthropist Lakshmy Reddy.
The ‘grain-for-grain’ is an initiative by WTI to provide relief to farmers who have incurred crop losses to wild elephants.
This is the first time that the initiative is being carried out in Nagaland. The beneficiary households belonging to three villages – Pangti, Ashaa and Sungro were decided based on a study on human-elephant conflict in the region by the project implementers in association with the village council members. An event was organised September 19 in Pangti for the distribution.
State chief wildlife warden T Lotha said government Nagaland lauded the ongoing conservation efforts of WTI. Sunil Kyarong, WTI’s regional head in Nagaland said forest department statistics showed that 7 people have been killed as a result of crop raiding in the last decade.
Wokha comprises around 150 km 2 of elephant habitat, and preventing further conflict with humans is a matter that needs to be urgently addressed, he said.
In addition to WTI, Natural Nagas, village council members and other locals, the event was attended by forest officials including A Phon, Range Officer (Wildlife Crime), T Sangtam, Range Officer, Intanki National Park and Obed B. Swu, Officer In-Charge of Nagaland Zoological Park.
WTI was represented by Dilip Deori, Assistant Manager of WTI and field officer Yuri Pator. Deori said for a state like Nagaland, wildlife conservation needs more and more efforts to save the rich wildlife heritage.
“It is a good sign that the village councils and traditional hunters came up to save the nature, supporting various conservation initiatives,” he said.
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