The Forest department of Tripura in collaboration with ANCF (Asian Nature Conservation Foundation) launched a special operation to radio-collar one elephant, that has been entering human settlements and destroying paddy fields and small huts in the hilly parts of Khowai district.

The drive to radio collar the wild elephant who has been given the name of ‘Moti’ by locals began on Sunday. ‘Moti’ roams in the forest alone and had recently destroyed paddy fields and small huts in human settlements close to forest areas, forest official said.

Locals have been urging officials to look into the issue where wild elephants enter human settlements quite frequently, a senior forest official told ANI.

District Forest Officer Akshay Bhodre said, “The operation was launched on Sunday and will continue until the troublemaker elephant can be radio collared. Radio collaring helps us keep track of the movement of the elephant in the forest areas. If we get his movement inputs we can accordingly plan and deploy our forest guards and volunteers to keep him at bay from the human settlements.”

The district official said that already one elephant had been radio collared enabling them to track the movement of the wild elephant herd moving inside forest areas.

To assist forest department of Tripura, Padma Shri awardee veterinarian KK Sharma, famed as the “elephant doctor of Assam” has arrived at Tripura and is part of the team which is supervising the whole operation.

Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of his visit to the forest areas, the elephant doctor said, “Elephants are the protectors of the forest. Earlier there used to be a lot of elephants in the jungle but now there are only a small group of 16 female elephants and Moti. Encroachment in the reserve forest areas is the reason behind such conflicts.”

Stating that in absence of elephants the whole forest would turn into a barren land, Sharma said, “The elephants must stay in the forest areas but we also have to look after the people living around the forest. Last year we installed a radio collar on one elephant which provides us with the real time location of that elephant. Moti is a loner so we are trying to radio collar him now.”

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