Elephant Menace | Participation of local people turns out to be huge support for Rapid Response Team
The Hindu
The Karadka Block Panchayat came up with the Special Task Forces, which included local people, in collaboration with the Forest Department to chase out elephants.
In the wake of an increasing elephant menace in the forest areas of Kasaragod and Kanhangad forest range, the participation of local people is turning out to be a huge support for the Rapid Response Team (RRT), which had been struggling due to staff shortage.
In the recent operation, the Karadka Block Panchayat came up with the Special Task Forces in collaboration with the Forest Department to chase out the elephants. The force included local people. This helped the RRT to successfully chase seven of the nine elephants back into the forest.
The initiative came as a huge blessing for the RRT team, which has been successfully managing the man-elephant conflicts for past several years. Despite short of hand, they manage to have no fatal cases in Kasaragod.
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