Army to support mitigation of HEC in Udalguri

Hatigarh,June 4:Army personnel stationed in Udalguri district under the command of Red Horns Artillery Brigade,Hatigarh will offer their voluntary support for creation of awareness among people of the locality and also among army personnel for mitigation of Human-Elephant Conflict in the district which has so far taken lives of 116 people and 51 wild elephants during last six years.Udalguri district has now been known as the hot spot zone of the conflict.An interactive technical session was held at Babber Hall in Hatigarh Army Brigade HQ on June 4 recently for army officers and jawans. The awareness programme was organized by Red Horns Artillery Brigade and conducted by WWF,India North Bank Landscape Programme,Tezpur. Army officials from Hatigarh Field Hospital,also participated in the session.Lt.Col Rohit Sarma inaugurated the technical session at 10.30 am.He spoke on some causes of the conflict in the district with special reference to HEC affecting the normal activities and movement of army personnel in the northern parts of Udalguri district.Lt. Col Sarma requested Army personnel to understand the psychology and behavior of wild elephants so as to protect themselves and common people in any situation.He put emphasis on the creation of awareness among people to avoid conflict with wild elephants for peaceful co existence. Hiten Baishya and David Smith of WWF,Tezpur conducted the multimedia demonstration session human-elephant conflict its causes and solutions with special reference to psychology and and behavior of wild elephants. Dr. Anupam Sarma,Coordinator of WWF NBL Programme spoke on the necessity of using 12 volts solar or battery energizers to keep away wild elephants from houses and crops.According to him the low cost and low power 'Fence System' is a security technology with high voltage pulses being delivered down the wire that is not life threatening or lethal.Other systems like inverters or AC lines are always fatal which had killed several man and wild elephants in the state. Jayanta Kumar Das,Wildlife activist and Hony.Wildlife Warden also spoke on the occasion with special reference to human-elephant conflict in Udalguri district since 2007.A live demonstration of low power fence system was also conducted at the end of the session by WWF team."It was a great learning experience for both the sides and will help in long way to mitigate 'Human-Elephant Conflict' in Assam",so said a army jawan attending the technical session at the end.